Harmony In Loneliness
by Cabbage Mann
Summary: A young man named Troy has had an awful life. It only gets worse when an evil corporation plans to abduct him, and all the galaxies heroes. How will these warriors fight their captors and escape bondage?
1. Chapter 1 Corporate Tragedy

Characters are owned by Nintendo.

The main character is an Original Character with a unique background. He's American, about 6 feet tall, with brown hair and green eyes; his name's Troy.

Chapter 1: Corporate Tragedy

* * *

Troy thought his life sucked so far. He thought _he_ had had a crappy childhood. But, he would soon find out that his childhood was a trip to Disney World in comparison to his friend's adolescence.

Troy was born in America, into a middle class, white family. They were all relatively normal people, living normal lives. Or so he had thought anyway. Troy's father was a United States Marine, his mother a Nurse. Troy's father was a "Jarhead" gone "Desk Jockey", he had served two tours: one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.

During a firefight in an Afghan bazaar, Troy's father was shot in the knee, and had to receive a couple surgeries to repair it. He could no longer work in the field, so his commanding officer had moved him to a desk job, hence the title "Desk Jockey." Along with the title, the commanding officer had given Troy's father a new job at a military base in Okinawa, Japan. Troy and his family moved there when he was only 4 years old.

_This is where the suck fest began_, Troy thought, recounting the night that had changed his life. It was a night like any other; Troy's father had just arrived home from his job at the Okinawa base, and Troy's mother had dinner on the table.

"How was work honey?" Troy's mother said.

"It was alright, had to speak with my commanding officer about some problems in tech support, but, it went okay."

"Sit down and have some food then, you must be starving." Troy's mother was always like that, caring and compassionate. She was a nurse at the local hospital, one of the only few on the island.

Troy was sitting on the floor playing with his toys, enjoying himself thoroughly with his stuffed bunny rabbit. He remembered exactly the way he felt that night. He wasn't looking forward to going to preschool in a couple weeks; he wanted to stay home with his mother instead. But, his mother had insisted that he go to preschool and learn about Japanese culture and language, so he could keep up with the other kids in school.

Just as Troy's father was getting situated in his seat at the head of the table, there was a knock on the door. Troy's father got up and started walking to the door. There was a second knock, this time the knock was louder and more urgent.

"Alright okay I'm coming, yeesh." Troy's father muttered. He opened the door and standing in front of him was a soaking wet Asian man in his 30's. He had jet black hair with a full goatee and sideburns. He was wearing a grey sport coat and a black tie, a common business look in Japan.

"There is no time to explain!" The man said urgently. He quickly walked inside, effectively inviting himself in.

"Gendun? What are you doing here, and why are you so wet? It's not even raining out." Troy's father asked incredulously.

"We must hurry; they know who's behind the faulted deal. They're on their way now! We must leave here, now!"

Troy's father froze, and his eyes widened heavily. "How can they know about that? That was months ago, and why are you so we-"

"Their interrogation methods are torturous. Forgive me friend..." Gendun looked down shamefully, and a wave of understanding passed over Troy's father's face. "In any case we have to leave, they're most likely already he-"

A loud shout was heard outside the small home, and an even louder, sharp bang was heard. A hole ripped through the wall and blood splattered across the kitchen wall. Troy's mother fell dead with a loud thump. Troy's father gaped in horror. That look on his father's face would forever be burned into Troy's mind, and would haunt his dreams and thoughts. The Marine's training would have kicked in instantly afterward and he would have gotten low to the floor, to protect him from further shots, but he was frozen in sheer disbelief at the body of his dead wife.

After a second had passed, Troy's father took a step towards his wife. A series of loud shots were heard outside, bullets ripped through the walls, and struck Troy's father. He was hit multiple times, and was dead before he hit the ground.

"God dammit, I was too late. Come child!" Gendun quickly lunged for the four year old Troy, grabbing him roughly around his arm, and ran with his head down for the back room. Tears streamed down Troy's face as bullets tore through the walls around him. Holding onto his stuffed rabbit, Troy followed after Gendun through the small house.

More bullets embodied themselves in the houses frame, breaking glass and causing confusion. The people outside didn't know where to shoot though, so they were just lighting the whole house up.

The pair arrived to the backroom, breathless.

"Listen Troy," Gendun whispered to the wide eyed boy. "I have to get you out of here; we're going to go through this window alright?" Gendun opened a small window on the far wall and quickly pushed Troy through it. Troy landed on the soft ground with a _thud_, and Gendun did the same shortly after.

"Where are we going, Gendun?" Troy asked in deep confusion.

"Somewhere safe," Gendun replied.

After the attack on the small Japanese house, Gendun and Troy escaped in Gendun's car. The hostile men didn't pursue them, for reasons unknown to Troy at the time but, he was sure that if he or Gendun had died as well, the men would not have cared. Troy grew up under Gendun's care; as a friend of Troy's father, Gendun made sure that Troy was taken care of.

Gendun was the first person that the family had met in Japan, and quickly became Troy's father's closest friend. They were also business partners, as Gendun was a private contractor for a large company, and Troy's father was a client for a military weaponry contract. Troy's father handled negotiations between the Marines and the company, and the United States government paid him to make deals with Gendun's company, which dealt weapons to the U.S. All in all, Troy's father was an important link between the United States military and the Japanese weapon makers.

As Troy grew up, Gendun taught him multiple martial arts. Troy learned Jiu Jitsu, Tai Chi, and Muay Thai, all starting when he was 4 years old. He also learned a bit of the art of the sword, Kendo (descended from Kenjutsu), which Gendun wasn't fluent in but, he taught Troy anyway. Gendun believed that the people that assassinated Troy's parents would one day come back for Troy, and Gendun wanted him to be fully prepared.

Troy went to school in Japan, earning excellent marks in all subjects. Gendun was a harsh trainer but, a loving guide none the less. Gendun gave Troy Buddhist teachings as well, teaching Troy meditation and Buddhist ways of thinking. Troy was taught to let go of his feelings of intense anger and hatred towards the men that killed his parents. Gendun had told him that those feelings were, "useless and destructive."

Although Troy liked Gendun and saw him as a friend, Troy was lonely growing up. He didn't make any friends at all in school, not even one. He had a horrendous time fitting in as one of the few white children at his school. Most of the other white kids didn't like him either; they thought Troy was weird and detached. Troy was stubborn though, he didn't let much get him down. He was always a happy-go-lucky kid, and became an attractive young man from all his hard work in training.

After Troy graduated from high school, he attended Okinawa University for a year, and had a job at a local gas station, working the front desk. Things changed for Troy when he turned 19.

"Have a nice day Ma'am." Troy said to the customer as she left the store.

The gas station where Troy worked was in a word, shitty. So shitty in fact, that Troy hardly bothered cleaning it much anymore. When confronted by the manager, Troy had said, "Every time I clean it, it gets dirtier! I'm doing you a favor man." The manager had just grumbled and mentioned something about firing someone before sauntering off to the back of the store.

As Troy finished his shift it was getting dark.

"See ya on Tuesday, Monty!" Troy said as he walked out of the store.

"Yeah whatever boy, go home already." The old man yelled back at him.

_Jackass_, Troy thought. Troy got on his motorcycle and rode the way back home, taking his time and enjoying the fresh air. Troy planned on moving into a new apartment soon, he just needed the money.

"I'm home Gendun." Troy said as he walked into the small Japanese home. It was spring time and the cherry blossoms were blooming out front, making beautiful pink hues in the yard.

"Hello Troy," Gendun said nervously.

_What's up with him? _ Troy thought. _Gendun's always so sure of himself, he's only ever nervous when he talks about my parents._

"We need to talk, it's very important." Gendun continued.

"Talk about what?" Troy replied.

"It's your parents."

Troy groaned inwardly, _you're so predictable Gendun._

"They're dead, we've been over this."

"Troy, it's about your father specifically, something you don't know about him already."

That got Troy's attention, he sat down on a table in the dining room/living room/kitchen that small homes have.

Gendun continued on, "Your father was part of an organization," He faltered.

"And…?"

"A crime organization called the Yakuza." Gendun finished.

"The Yakuza?"

"I was with them as well; we were in the same branch."

"You can't be serious." Troy said dismissively.

"When your family came to Japan your father needed more money. His military job wasn't enough to provide for you and your mother. He had to make ends meet somehow, so he came to me." Gendun took a sip of some water he had poured before Troy entered the room.

"I told him I knew a way to help him make some extra yen. He became part of the same Yakuza syndicate I joined a couple years prior. He was good with business, so they gave your father a position as a weapons dealer."

Troy just stared blankly at the ground as Gendun spoke, not sure how to feel.

"A couple months before your parents were killed, your father got involved in a big deal. Over two thousand rifles and pistols were to be traded from a corporation to the Yakuza. I told your father to stay out of this deal, as the corporation we were dealing with was shady and mysterious."

"What happened to the deal?" Troy said blankly, still staring off into space.

"The boat doing the cargo delivery was intercepted by the Japanese police force. They arrested 20 corporate workers, and seized all the weapons, millions in losses. The corporation repaid the Yakuza the best way they saw fit, assassinating all of the business leaders that were a part of the deal; about 15 or 16 people in all."

"Dad being one of them…" Troy finished. He looked away, tears welling up in his eyes. "Why didn't you tell me this until now?"

"It was to protect you, you must under-"

"Where did you fit in all of this, huh? The night my parents were killed you showed up, what was your role in the deal Gendun?"

Gendun opened his mouth, and then closed it, looking down shamefully.

Gendun continued on, "I was your father's business partner. I made negotiations with the corporations, while your father carried them out. As standard practice, when the shipment went bad and the corporation couldn't find everyone responsible, they interrogated me, the negotiator. I submitted, and told them about your father, and other arms dealers in Japan involved. You have to understand Troy! They almost drowned me when they were interrogating me!"

Troy got up and went to the door.

"Troy, wait, I left the Yakuza after that, and hid you away to protect you. If you knew, it would have been worse!"

Troy turned around with tears in his eyes, an angry look on his face.

"Fuck you Gendun! Fuck you for getting my parents killed!" Troy shouted, full of emotion.

Troy stormed out of the door and onto the sidewalk of the house. He put his helmet on and sped off on his motorcycle.

Troy knew he was thinking irrationally. He knew that Gendun was right; it would have been no use at all to tell him about the origin of his parent's death until he was old enough to fully understand.

When Gendun had talked about it, it brought forth a whole swath of bottled up emotions from inside Troy. He felt anger and sadness at the same time, and he was confused.

_How could my father have done that? How could he have been part of a crime family? He wasn't like that. _Troy thought. Troy pulled over into a nearby parking lot. It was empty, and Troy had ridden all the way to the rural part of the small island, about a half an hour ride. He was at a park, with large trees and benches and trash cans and sidewalks. It was already dark, and Troy was wondering what exactly he was doing here.

_I guess I just need to think. _He thought. _I shouldn't have blown up at Gendun like that. He gave me so much to make it up to me, and he was good to me as a kid. _Troy sat down at one of the park benches and melted into the seat. He hadn't realized just how tired he was until now. _I'll just go back, and smooth everything over, and we'll enjoy a nice cup of tea. _

Troy momentarily dozed off, but he was awoken abruptly by an extremely bright light coming from the sky.

Hovering above him was a huge aircraft, which looked similar to a giant hover boat that he'd seen pictures of his dad riding on, one that was big enough to carry aircraft; only this thing was flying. On the side of the large grey flying thing, was "S.S.B.", written in large uppercase red lettering.

Troy momentarily thought that it was a police helicopter, coming to catch him for speeding or something. Then he realized that this flying vehicle was massive, and nothing he'd seen before.

Suddenly there was a large amount of feedback sent into Troy's ears and he covered them. A voice came on a loudspeaker.

"_Do not attempt to resist _–BZZZT- _we will use force to extract you, Troy."_ The grainy voice said from the loudspeaker on the side of the ship.

_What the hell, how does it know my-_ Troy didn't have time to finish the thought, as he was snatched forcefully by a long mechanical claw on the tip of a metal wire. It came from a man sized hole in the bottom of the ship, and ripped Troy up onto his feet.

"What the fuck?"

Troy sputtered as he was dragged straight into the air at blinding speeds. He was dragged into the man sized hole which closed behind him, and into a small room. He landed hard on his back with a loud _thunk_, similar sounding to a sledge hammer on a ventilation duct. The metal claw retracted into a small cubby hole in the wall after releasing Troy.

"Urrghh…" Troy moaned as he rubbed his aching back. He stood up and looked around at his surroundings. He was in a dark room with a single flickering bulb hanging over his head.

Troy heard a distinct _foomp_, and then felt a prick in his thigh. He looked down in complete surprise, and saw a needle protruding from his pants. He picked it out of his skin painfully, before falling to the ground, unconscious.

"Go to sleep now…" spoke a sickly sweet voice from the shadows.


	2. Chapter 2 Hall of Legends

Characters are owned by Nintendo.

Chapter 2: Hall of Legends

* * *

Troy awoke abruptly. The setting had changed; he was in an entirely different room now. Checking out his surroundings, he was now in a brightly lit room. The walls glowed softly, and were white as snow. There were no edges to the room, only smoothed corners that led into the walls, and then the ceiling.

Troy was leaned back in a body length seat, similar to a dentist's chair. It was the only piece of furniture in the small, cube-like room. His legs were strapped down in three different places, as well as his arms and torso. The only leverage he had was around his neck, where he could move his head off the seat a couple inches.

The room made Troy incredibly uneasy. He remembered discussing Gendun's interrogation, and a shiver went up his spine. Was he to be interrogated about his father's work? Troy had so many questions swirling around in his head.

_Am I going to die here? _He thought. He thought of all the things he'd regret if he were to die in this room. _I never got to say goodbye to my parents, I never said sorry to Gendun for being so stupid, I've never had any real friends, and I've never even held _hands _with a girl, much less kissed one or gone out with one. Yep, this sucks._

A portion of the wall slid open, interrupting Troy's thoughts. A woman wearing all white with a stethoscope wrapped around her neck walked in. She smiled warmly at Troy.

"How are you feeling?" The woman asked.

"Fine but, where the hell am I and-"

"All will be answered shortly," The woman interrupted. "For now, I'm just here for your official medical examination."

Troy frowned, _examination for what?_ The last time he'd had a medical examination was when he played track for his high school. The woman walked over and pulled the stethoscope out from around her neck. She abruptly lifted Troy's shirt up and stuck the cold metal piece onto Troy's chest.

Her eyes widened a small margin as she gazed upon Troy's hard muscled frame.

"Oh, you're toned," She smiled, "You'll be a favorite among the ladies."

Troy blushed visibly as she examined his heart rate.

_That would be a pleasant change of things, _he thought glumly.

"I don't get it, a favorite for what?" Troy asked.

"Like I told you, all will be made clear shortly. Your heart rate is looking normal, if a bit fast. Oh don't be nervous dear, you'll do fine I'm sure."

_Do fine in what, lady? _Troy wanted to yell at her. _And why am I strapped to this table?_

The woman took some other standard tests: blood pressure, allergies or ailments, gag reflex, eye and ear tests, the whole nine yards.

"We got your weight and height earlier. Sorry about that whole tranquilizer thing, some contestants tend to be a bit… tricky." The woman giggled and smiled at him weirdly.

"Wait, contestants?"

"Oh silly me, well I must be off! Good luck dear."

Troy couldn't help but think that the woman acted a bit like his mother. The woman left through the same door she came in, and left Troy alone with his thoughts. Troy was thoroughly confused; he at least knew he'd be part of some kind of competition, since she had said "contestants." Troy suddenly felt very lonely. He'd of course always felt lonely, he didn't have any friends and his only companion wasn't anywhere near his own age. However, this was different. He was now in a strange place with no bearing of time and he was alone.

That changed quickly, as four men came into the room the same way the woman had. The burly men awkwardly shouldered through the small door frame, and stood against the wall. A smaller, mousy looking man followed in after them. All of the larger men wore business attire and dark shades, while the smaller man wore flip flops and a Hawaiian style surfer button down shirt. Troy looked at them the best he could, facing perpendicular to them, and with the seat in the way.

The mouse man stepped forward. "Hello, Troy of Earth."

_Of Earth… what does that mean?_

"Uhh, hi." Troy answered awkwardly.

"We have come to brief you on your stay here at the S.S.B. arena."

"An aren-"

"Quiet boy, I was not done speaking yet."

Troy didn't like the smaller man's attitude, or his looks for that matter.

"As I was saying, you are in the S.S.B. arena, where champions from all over the universe come to put on a show for people and creatures everywhere."

_Okay, now I'm really confused, _Troy thought.

"Is this some kind of-"

"You will fight to the death in the arena with other skilled combatants." The small man said, interrupting Troy.

A look of absolute horror spread across Troy's face. _To the death?_

"Oh don't look at me that way boy, silly earthlings haven't even… never mind. Anyway, you will be rematerialized in your prior state of health after the battle. You will have only felt and appeared to be damaged, whereas you truly won't be."

The small man continued after musing at Troy's confusion.

"Between matches you will have free time in the facility, where you will be among other combatants. There are plenty of high quality training rooms you can use. Meal times and a curfew will be enforced, and you are not to exit the facility, not that you could anyway."

"Try not to get into any trouble with other combatants outside the arena. The punishment is solitary confinement and exclusion of meal times; the rules do not have any exceptions. Do I make myself clear?"

Troy only nodded, completely floored at what was being explained to him.

"Good, the guards will release you and take you to your quarters. Dinner is at six o'clock, S-S-B time."

_Have I been out an entire day? I ate dinner before leaving the house, and it's already dinner again?_

The man turned and left the room, and the 4 large men sauntered over to where Troy was laying. One of them pressed a few buttons on a screen out of Troy's view, and the straps were released.

"No funny business kid, solitary confinement is just around the corner." One of the large men said.

Two of the other men grabbed Troy roughly by his upper arms.

Troy protested loudly, "What are you doing?"

"Shut up," One of them said.

Troy struggled for a bit, to no avail. A third guard grabbed him by his legs as well, and Troy couldn't move.

The guards carried Troy through the door and down a long, narrow hallway. Troy remembered what Gendun had taught him in Tai Chi, to always be observant of your surroundings, as it might prove useful to you in the future.

Troy looked up and down the sides of the hallway. The walls were solid metal, and grey. The ceiling was half obscured by lights embedded into it. As the men carried Troy, he also noticed cameras protruding from the ceiling every 20 or so feet. They were most likely always on, and there was no possible way Troy could go anywhere unnoticed. Seconds turned into minutes, and the guards had let go of Troy; they instead pushed him along every once in a while, as he walked in between them.

On the left wall, there were now windows. The long, rounded, rectangle windows peered into empty rooms, some with the lights off. There were maybe 15 or so windows ahead of him, if he had to guess.

The rooms were large, about the size of a tennis court. Each room Troy peered into had the same interior; there was a ramp that ran parallel to the hallway, which led from the door to the lowered floor of the room. The walls were paneled, and had the same metallic look as the hallway. The floor was dark, yet reflective, and looked like glass.

Off to the side, was a raised podium. The podium was metallic, and had a glowing face on top. The podiums looked like large computers, or something similar. They each had a screen on top that lit up with different colors, and information. Each one sat maybe 5 feet from the wall. They were all so futuristic looking, like something from a movie.

In the next window ahead, Troy saw flashes of light, and heard muffled sounds coming from inside the room. As they passed the room, Troy peered inside. What he saw made his mouth swing wide open. A pink looking puff ball stood in the center of the floor, and off to the side was the same podium-console. Only this time, a man stood in front of it, looking on at the pink creature. Standing next to 'pinky' were 3 malleable looking holograms, with manikin shaped bodies, all of them had no facial features.

_Whoa, this is surreal, _Troy thought. The man pressed a button inside the room, and the manikins began lunging at the pink thing. Before Troy could see any more, a guard pushed Troy, and he had to keep walking.

_The training rooms that man had mentioned, those must be the ones. _There were no more creatures or people in any of the other training rooms, and Troy wondered just how many "contestants" there were in this "arena."

They rounded a corner and started passing by numbered doors, 201, 202 etc. Troy remembered going on vacation with Gendun a while back on mainland Japan. They didn't go on vacations often, because they hadn't had much money, so Troy remembered this especially. The rooms in their hotel were numbered by floor, the first number representing which floor you were on.

_We must be on the second floor of this facility. What does the first floor have on it, are there more floors? Where am I, how did I get here, and who are these people?_

Troy had so many questions but, he knew the big buffoons leading him to his room wouldn't be much help, so he stayed quiet.

"Here's your room kid." The same large man who was talking to him earlier said, "The facility is on lockdown at the moment, since you came in the ship. Only rooms and training rooms are open during lockdown."

They had stopped at a room that said _216 _on the name plate outside the door. The man pressed a green button on a small console next to the door, and then he retrieved a card from his pocket, and swiped it in the console.

The door opened and a big man shoved Troy inside. The door shut behind him, and was locked from the outside with a small _beep_.

Troy looked around inside the room and found two beds, with space in between them, and on the far end of the room were two identical looking cabinets. Everything was a different shade of grey, and the floor was white and metallic. In the far left corner of the room there was a man sized door that led to what looked like a bathroom with a shower stall in it.

Sitting on the bed to the left of the door, staring at Troy wide eyed, was a man about Troy's age. He had blonde hair, a green tunic and hood, and long pointy ears. He also wore tan leggings, and brown boots. He had a belt and an undershirt on. The man also had large blue eyes and an intense gaze that looked over Troy with an analytic eye. Sitting on the cabinet by his bed was a blue sword, and a blue shield with some other strange looking items that Troy didn't recognize immediately.

The man stood up.

"Hi, I'm Link, nice to meet you." The man stood, smiled friendly at Troy, and extended a hand.

Troy shook his hand, "My name's Troy. I have some questions for you Link."

Link managed to answer question after question that Troy had. Troy was on a facility on a distant planet. The facility was about three miles away over land from a huge dome coliseum. The coliseum is where citizens from all over the galaxy would come to watch champions fight in glorious battle.

"What, you mean like the Roman Gladiators?" Troy asked Link. Troy had no belongings, so he had just sat down on his bed and faced the young man sitting across from him. Link sat cross legged on his bed, facing Troy.

"What?"

"Never mind, something from my home. What time is it?"

"This screen says _5:50 S.S_._B._"

Troy remembered dinner was supposed to be in ten minutes.

"Say Link, where are you from anyway?" Troy asked.

"A land called Hyrule; I lived in a small village a day's journey away from the royal castle. I was just on my way to visit a friend of mine when I was abducted by a large flying thing. My friend is here as well, her name is Zelda."

"Similar thing happened to me, that large flying thing captured me too. I was sitting in a park a small ways from home."

"It seems we were both away from home… perhaps in a secluded area?"

"Yeah, it was the middle of bumfuck nowhere."

"Bumfuck… is that a village where you're from?"

Troy chuckled, "No man, forget it. Dinner is in-"

"_PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY OVER TO THE DINING HALL IN THE CENTER OF THE FACILITY. LOCK DOWN IS NOW OVER, THAT IS ALL."_

"Err… now I suppose." Troy finished.

The door opened and streaming by the small room were a lot of strange looking "champions." There was a fox wearing clothes, a big nosed Italian man, a monkey and a gorilla, a robot, and even a large orange dragon. Many more random looking creatures and people alike made their way down the hallway to the left, going away from where Troy had come from.

Link got up and walked to the door, turning around to face Troy. "Come on, the food's pretty good here."

Troy got up and walked with Link down the long hall way. When they arrived to the large dining hall, Troy was amazed by how many people there were in the room. There were some familiar faces he had recognized from the hallway, and the large pink puff ball that he had seen training earlier. Food was being distributed in plates across the tables by small mushroom looking creatures with no arms, and small men wearing sleeveless shirts and spotted round hats.

_This is bizarre as hell. I've never seen anything like this before._ Troy thought.

Link started walking to a table with two… animals sitting at the table. They weren't exactly animals though, they were wearing clothes and shoes but, they had the heads of a fox and a bird.

Link motioned for him to join them and Troy sat down at the rounded, grey table.

"Guys this is Troy, he was put in my room today about half an hour ago. Troy this is Fox," Link motioned to the one that looked like a, well… fox. "And this is Falco," Link then motioned to the bird man with a large beak and red shadowed eyes.

"Hi." Troy said happily, trying to break the ice.

"Has he fought yet?" Fox asked.

"He just got here dude, half an hour ago." Falco said to his buddy.

"Ah right. Well can you fight?" Fox directed his attention to Troy.

Troy smiled, fighting was one thing he could do right, "Yeah, pretty well too." Troy answered with confidence.

"I guess we'll see then," said Fox.

A small mushroom man with one big tooth came over carrying a plate on his cone head, dropped it in front of Troy, and walked off. Similar mushroom things did the same with Fox and Falco. Hamburger and fries, with a squirt of ketchup sat on his plate. Troy was hungry and began munching on some fries while his table did the same. He looked around, taking in his surroundings. He found different creatures and people sitting at tables and eating. The mushroom men and happy looking spotty hats all began to sit down and serve themselves as well.

Link noticed Troy looking at the mushrooms and small people and said, "Goombas. The small mushrooms are Goombas, and the small men are citizens of the mushroom kingdom."

"How do you know that?" Troy asked.

"Mario told me, the big nosed guy over there, the one with the red hat."

Troy could see why Link was so specific, there were a couple big nosed Italian dudes sitting at a table on the far end of the dining hall, munching happily. Just then something caught Troy's eye. A tall woman with long blonde hair tied back in a ponytail walked into the dining hall. She looked to be about Troy's age, if not a year older or so.

_There are women here?_ Troy thought. Looking around, Troy spotted a table with some women, that pink puff ball from earlier, and an Eskimo child eating at it. Troy returned his gaze back to the woman walking between the tables. She was gorgeous, wearing a plain white shirt and jean shorts. She wore black sneakers with a logo on them that Troy had never seen before.

"She's cute." Troy said matter-of-factly.

Fox and Falco looked up at what Troy was gazing at and just grunted.

"She's a freak," Fox said, "She sits at her own table, doesn't ever talk much, and I don't think she has any friends at all. She wears this metal suit when she fights, which I frankly see as cheating, and glares at anyone that comes near her."

_A freak… _Troy thought. Those words sounded all too familiar. It was one of the words the other kids commonly used to describe Troy in school. He didn't fit in at all, and had sat by himself as well.

Troy watched as a large gorilla was laughing with a small monkey and another big nosed Italian man. This one was wearing a yellow hat with a "W" written in purple on it. He had huge teeth, and was a small fat man. As the blonde haired girl walked by, the gorilla, which was wearing a red tie, said something to the attractive woman, something Troy couldn't make out due to the noise level of the room. The girl stopped in her tracks and gave the oversized chimp a murderous look, one that would have made Troy melt into a puddle. The gorilla just frowned uneasily as the woman walked away.

The blonde, true to Fox's words, sat by herself at a table as far away from everyone as you could get in the room. A "Goomba" brought her some food, and she began eating.

"What's her name?" Troy said, breaking the silence at his table.

"Don't know, don't care." Falco said.

Link gave Falco an odd look before looking at Troy, "She got here a couple of days ago, and like Fox said, doesn't talk to anyone really. None of us have had a chance to learn her name."

_She must be so lonely, days without speaking to anyone at all._

"I'm gonna go talk to her." Troy said with a big smile.

Fox and Falco froze, looking at Troy wide eyed.

Link did the same, and said, "I wouldn't do that. The last guy that tried to talk to her at her table, she punched in the face. They both sat in solitary for the rest of the day."

Troy looked at them oddly. _Why would she do that? _He wondered. _The guy was probably just rude to her; she's probably a cool girl._

Troy stood up and left the table anyway, ignoring Link's warnings.

The three guys looked at Troy with pity, Fox said, "This is gonna be great," and he leaned back in his chair.

Troy made his way straight over to the girl, a big grin on his face. _I'm gonna be the first one she talks to, _he thought.

As Troy approached, the blonde girl noticed him, and for an instant, there was a sad expression in her eyes, like she had just thought of something depressing. She quickly masked the face with a glare sharp enough to cut diamonds as Troy sat down at the table. She held the glare as Troy extended his hand.

"Hi, I'm Troy, what's your name?" Troy said.

The girl glared straight into Troy's eyes as he sat there, waiting for a second before his hand drooped. Back at the table where Link and the other two were at, they all burst out laughing as Troy awkwardly sat there for a few seconds. A Goomba placed another plate of food in front of Troy's new seat, then scattered when the blonde woman averted her stare to him.

Troy, unfazed, said, "So uhh, where are you from?"

The girl returned to her food, taking a very large bite of her hamburger, completely ignoring Troy, and then she stood up, walking away with her mouth full.

Troy gazed at her thin waist and sculpted back from behind as she skulked off through the doors, walking down the hall.

_Damn, she must work out a lot_, Troy mused.

Troy made his way back to his original seat, looking glumly at his friends. Seeing his face, they all burst out laughing again; Falco was so overcome he banged his fist on the table wildly.

"That couldn't have gone any better my man!" Fox said, still giggling madly.

Troy just glared at him before feeling infected by the laughter, and just smiled at his food. _Well, at least I made an attempt to talk to her, _he thought.

"Yep, and I'm gonna try again tomorrow." Troy said proudly.

"Hey Fox, remind me to bring my camera, man." Falco said, breathing heavily. Both of them just laughed some more, while Link grinned merrily.

_This place isn't so bad, _Troy thought to himself.

* * *

So I'll post a new chapter every 10 days! :)


	3. Chapter 3 A Girl and Her Suit

Characters are owned by Nintendo

Chapter 3: A Girl and Her Suit

* * *

Troy was lying in bed, wide awake. It was 11:24 S.S.B time, according to the soft glow of the clock on the wall, and Troy couldn't seem to find sleep. Link was to his left, snoring loudly in his bed. After dinner, Link went off to train some, while Fox and Falco went back to their room to do… whatever animal people do for fun, Troy had guessed. Troy took a small nap and woke up to do some meditation, and some Tai Chi deep breathing exercises. Link had walked in on him unnoticed, and Troy had his eyes closed in concentration; Troy was rather embarrassed, the exercises can be sort of strange looking to an observer.

Entertainment was pretty scarce around the facility. According to Link, there was a recreational room on the lower floor, right beneath the dining hall. He had also mentioned that it's a bad idea to go in there, as it smells really badly, and it's dominated by the large gorilla called "Donkey Kong", along with his little posse. Link told him there's some weird magic box, with people moving around inside of it in the 'rec-room'. Troy had chuckled, and guessed that Link had been talking about a television, but the blonde warrior most likely didn't have those where he was from.

Staring at the ceiling, Troy thought of all that had happened recently. _I was abducted from my home planet, after learning what really happened to my parents, and why they were killed. I actually managed to make some friends, and compared to everyone else, I'm actually relatively normal._

Troy then thought about the blonde girl he'd tried to talk to earlier. _She seemed so closed off, so emotionally unavailable. _Troy envisioned her face when he first approached her; sadness and hurt were in her eyes. Troy was sure she had thought that no one was watching, and she had quickly tried to mask the look with a glare at him. What could she be hiding behind that stormy exterior and why was she so closed off to everyone? Troy had to find out somehow, the girl was mysterious and alluring to him.

Troy turned over and looked at the door to his and Link's room.

_Let's see how good those cameras really are. _

Troy got up from his bed, wearing only some boxer briefs. Troy pulled on the only clothes that he owned at the moment, a dark T-shirt, and some khaki pants, and pulled on his shoes.

The door to the small room opened with a touch of a round looking button. Outside in the hall, the lights on the ceiling were dimmed almost completely, shedding only a little light to the floor below. Troy began walking down the hallway in the direction opposite the dining hall, towards the training rooms. _210, 209, 208…_ The numbered rooms counted down as he walked. He heard some weird noises coming from 205, but he decided to keep walking, as he really wasn't supposed to be in the hallway this late.

_Well, a day in solitary doesn't sound so bad, I could get some good meditation going with that much time, _Troy thought. He rounded the corner, and the long stretching hallway that signified the training rooms spanned in front of him. Troy stopped and stood on the metal floor below him. He rubbed his shoes on the smooth panels, feeling the metal-work. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, enjoying the serene quietness that surrounded him.

_Maybe I'll go and try out the training rooms, and see how advanced the technology is, _Troy thought to himself. He kept walking down the hall, passing by windows as he walked. Troy wasn't sure which room he should use, and hadn't known for sure if all the rooms were the same anyways. Troy was too busy looking in all of the windows on his way down the hallway, and he didn't notice a faint glow emanating from one of the windows ahead of him. As he approached the window marking the room with a light on in it, he slowed his pace. _Who else could be up right now, and who would be crazy enough to train this late? _

Troy peered inside the window, keeping as much of his frame from visibility as he could. Inside were 5 manikins, each in different chaotic positions of attack and deformation. It looked as though a few of the manikins were fighting something, and one was being sent flying through the air. The manikin hit the wall with the force of a truck, and Troy flinched instinctively, bracing for the noise. The manikin just burst into hundreds of digitalized bits and pieces, as it noiselessly hit the wall.

_Amazing… _Troy thought. _What could have hit the poor thing so hard? _The manikin reappeared in the center of the room, and started moving around like its other manikin buddies. In the center of it all, there was a humanoid figure kicking, punching, and mauling all the manikins. It looked like a robot, but Troy was certain the movement of the figure was far too fluid and dynamic to be a robot. It almost looked like a metal… _suit. _

_Fox had mentioned that the girl that sat at her own table used a suit in the arena, _Troy thought. He watched as the girl with a metal suit moved blindingly fast. Troy also noticed that whoever had taught her had known some Muay Thai; she delivered high kicks very similar to the ones he had practiced. Although, there was a personal spin on it, a flick of the toe for extra force; she was making the most out of her movements, making each one efficient and forceful.

_She's incredible, _Troy thought, in complete amazement. Troy continued watching the unsuspecting fighter with awe, until he heard a noise coming from all the way down the hall. It was the noise of shattered glass, sharp and distinctive. Shortly afterward, loud grumbling and a muffled curse were heard.

_Someone dropped something, it seems, _Troy thought. _Ah shit. I'm not supposed to be here._ He was about to make a run for it back to his room, then stopped. He couldn't just leave the girl there to get in trouble; she didn't know someone was going to be coming down this hall _very_ soon. Troy had to think fast, either he left her out to dry, or maybe both of them would be caught.

He quickly lunged over to the window and gave it a hefty bang with his fist. The armored woman rounded to face the window, looking for the source of the noise. Troy pointed towards the hallway he'd heard someone, and mouthed "Someone's coming!" ecstatically. The shiny metal figure punched an incoming training dummy, and then ran over to the console, and pressed a large red button on the screen. The dummies disappeared with a flash. Troy heard footsteps from the hallway. There was no time for the girl in the room to come over to the door and run away, so Troy did something he was sure wouldn't work.

Troy slammed the button to open the door with his fist and practically fell inside. He turned around and pressed the opposite sided button, and the door shut behind him.

"No time to explain, lights off, now!" Troy shouted at the figure by the console. He scanned quickly for somewhere to hide. The room had been designed to be mostly empty space, so the only place to hide was behind the console, and it wasn't much room.

Troy made do with it, and ran over to the console, with the metal clad girl just staring at him. _She doesn't seem to get the message that we're fucked if she doesn't hide._

"Someone's coming, get behind- mmmf!"

Troy's mouth was clamped shut by a painfully cold, and forceful, metal hand. The ground rushed unbelievably fast to his head, and he and the heavy suited fighter were on the floor, behind the console. There was some shuffling behind him, and the lights flickered off. Troy would have groaned loudly, but he was finding it a bit difficult to breath.

_Oh my God… she's on top of me. _They were scrunched up in a little ball on the floor, with one of the suits arms wrapped around Troy's mouth, and the other around his waist. All went quiet for a second, and then Troy heard a distinctive _tap-tap-tap;_ someone was walking towards the room. Troy could hear his own breathing, and he felt the rise and fall of the suit's chest pressed into his back. The tapping grewlouder, and Troy was sure the person was right outside the room. Suddenly, the tapping stopped.

_No! Please don't come in! _Troy thought. The door opened.

_Fuck._

There was some grumbling heard, a man's voice, older and with a raspy lisp.

"Stupid game masters… 'turn off the console' they said… stupid mug… stupid floor…"

The metal-suited girl had her leg draped over Troy's mid-section protectively, and she straightened her head up, still behind the console, but she had more range of motion now. She pressed a small yellow button in the corner of the console. The console turned dark and it made a loud _beep _noise.

_Why'd she turn it off?! We're definitely fucked now!_

The man stopped where he stood. He spoke, "What? I say, when did we get the voice activated consoles?" He paused for a second, "Console, turn on!"

The girl pressed her hand against the yellow power button in the corner again. The console whirred to life and made another loud _beep _noise.

"Well then, that's quite nifty! Console, off for the night then." The man said.

The console turned off once more when the button was pressed. The man shuffled out of the room, and the door closed behind him. Troy breathed a sigh of relief through the fingers clamped over his mouth.

_That was genius! How did she even think of that? _

The metal body behind Troy pushed him out from under her, and stood up from the ground. Troy stood up as well, and took a large breath of air. He turned around to look at the suited figure, and saw her with her hands on her hips, looking at him expectantly. She removed her helmet, and her long blonde hair spilled out of it. She had flushed cheeks and sweat dripping down her face from her forehead. Troy would have thought she looked extremely alluring, but her eyes looked at him as though they intended to cut him in half.

She spoke.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? You could have had us both thrown in solitary!"

"I… I was just… uhm…" Troy fumbled for words; he was never great at speaking when he was nervous.

"Why are you even here? Just leave me alone!" The girl yelled at him.

She turned around and stormed to the exit, slammed her hand onto the button, and then rushed out the door.

_What just happened? _Troy thought uneasily. He rubbed his head where it had hit the floor and started walking towards the door to the hallway.

Walking back to his room, he tried to make sense what the blonde girl had said to him. _Why was she so upset? I saved her from that dude walking in on her... Then again, she'd saved us both from him actually finding us. _Troy turned the corner of the hallway, and walked up to the door of the room, _216_.

Troy wondered how she could be so pissed at him, just for trying to talk to her._ I'll apologize for bothering her tomorrow. _Troy thought glumly. _I'll just tell her sorry for annoying her at all, thank her for her quick thinking, and leave her alone._

He pressed the button and walked inside. Link was completely sprawled out on his bed now, and his mouth hung open, snores came from the back of his throat.

However annoyed she was at him, Troy knew he'd made the right choice. If he ran back without her, she'd probably be in solitary by now for being out past curfew.

Troy didn't even bother pulling his clothes off, just his shoes. He fell into bed, the clock reading 11:35 S.S.B.

"Hey, Troy, wake up!" Link said to the still-sleeping Troy.

Troy bolted upright and looked around the room.

"What? What's happening?"

"Relax man; you just overslept a bit that's all."

Troy looked at the clock and saw that it was 10:00 o'clock S.S.B.

"You missed breakfast, so I brought you some of it." Link held out a plate of eggs and bacon that smelled amazing to Troy.

"Thanks," He said. "So uh, what's the plan for today?"

"Well," Link began, "It's Monday, so this week's matches start today. I can't believe I forgot to tell you how this entire thing works."

Troy sat up in his bed and looked up at the green clad warrior.

"In the arena there are 3 different types of matches. One vs. one, Exhibition, and Tournament matches. The main focus is the one vs. one matches though, it's the most competitive. There are a few matches each day, starting off at 11:00 o'clock in the morning."

Troy nodded, taking a quick mental note of the time Link had mentioned.

"Every Friday is Exhibition match day, where the fans vote for crazy different types of matches to take place, and it's really just for fun. During Exhibition matches, game-masters place some interesting tools on the field; you get to play around with some really cool stuff. Also, every other week, on Saturday, we have a tournament. These are very competitive, and fun to be a part of, at least in my opinion."

Troy snorted. He couldn't see how any of this would be _fun._ He was going to be experiencing a lot of 'simulated' pain and mutilation for the viewing pleasure of random people.

"Now, regarding one-v-one battles: it's very obvious that there are some more capable fighters in this place, so putting them against weaker opponents wouldn't technically be fair, or entertaining."

"To solve this they made a class system, fighters face off against people in their same class. Starting from E-class, and ending with A-class, A being the best, and E being… well, bad. Only a few people make it to A-class."

Troy thought for a moment. _Which class am I going to fit in? _Maybe it was Troy's self-esteem speaking, but he was certain he wouldn't be very high. _I mean seriously, how am I supposed to fight dragons, crazy military dudes, weird creatures, and other random shit? Not to mention everyone and their buddy has a sword or a weapon._ Troy remembered last night, seeing a kick from his blonde 'friend' that would have shattered his bones. _Yeah, there's no way I can fight that._

"Hey Link, which class are you in?" Troy smirked, knowing the question would make Link uneasy.

"Erm… that's not important. I'd rather not speak of it." Link said nervously.

"Is it bad? I won't laugh, promise. I don't think I'll be in a better class than you anyways."

Link scowled, "No it's not D-class or anything, it's just… you'll see, okay?"

Troy made a _Tch _noise, signifying his defeat.

"Anyways, every new fighter must go through a standard class initiation trial. You start out at the middle, C class, and fight someone from there. If you win, you move up. If you lose, you move down. You do this three times, and at the end of the three matches, you have your theoretical class. Pretty simple huh?"

Troy nodded. "Just a quick question, how long does this class you get last?" He asked.

"Every tournament day, the game-masters decide whether you move up or down, or stay. It's all up to how they think you did during the week." Link replied.

"Also, will I be facing anyone else doing their placement matches?" Troy had remembered that Fox and Falco said there were some new arrivals, one of them being the blonde girl.

Link thought for a second. "Not usually. But if you both happen to be in the same class by the third match, and it's convenient, the game-masters will pair the two of you up."

Link took a seat on his bed as Troy finished off his food, and put his plate on the floor.

Link spoke again, "Another thing, this is an industry to the game-masters. They'll do whatever it takes to get better ratings and make more money. During your matches you need to be wary of how you come off, game-masters like to twist any interactions fighters have. If you and another fighter have a rivalry, it makes for great grudge matches for viewers to get hyped about."

Troy nodded, and said, "It's very similar to how the paparazzi treated movie stars back where I'm from. If something happened between two of them in Hollywood, it was sure to be seen somewhere by the public. Frankly, I hated all of it."

Link chuckled, "I'm not sure what you're talking about, but you're a part of it now it seems. I see what you mean though, it really sucks. My rival and enemy, Ganondorf, is a part of the fighters as well. We avoid each other during our time in the facility, but when we face each other, it's pretty bloody."

Troy wondered if he'd have any rivals in the arena. _That blonde girl sure seems to want to kill me now I suppose. With any luck I'll be in the lower leagues, safely away from her scary-as-fuck-suit. She's sure to be in the higher classes, with how much skill she possesses. _

_Maybe that pink puff ball can be my nemesis… _

Troy grinned at the thought. How could he hurt something so cuddly?

Link noticed Troy's thoughts wander, and he spoke up, "Well you'd best get ready. Your match is the first of the day. By the way, your girlfriend is in her placement matches as well, she got here in the middle of last week. Placement matches only take place on Mondays."

Troy gave Link a look, "She's not my-"

"Yes we know, the whole place knows after last night." Link started laughing manically as Troy's face grew into a pinkish color.

Troy thought for a minute that Link was talking about the training room, but he knew the swordsman must've meant the incident at dinner.

Troy stood up and remembered he only had a short amount of time to get ready for his match. He got up from his bed, and went into the bathroom. He was in desperate need of a shower, and he was pretty sure he'd never been happier to see one. Feeling the water run across him, his mind began to wander.

_What if I actually do well in this arena? _

Troy thought about some other the other combatants he'd seen at dinner. He was sure he could beat the big nosed Italian guys; they didn't really look all that intimidating. He knew he could probably beat all of the women at the women's table, they looked relatively harmless. Now that Troy thought of it, a lot of the fighters didn't really seem all that bad in a one-versus-one battle.

Then he remembered some of Gendun's teachings, _"You must never underestimate your opponent. A man who is sure of himself is his own downfall, he becomes slow and his guard is momentarily lowered, for in his mind he cannot possibly lose. To defeat your opponent, your mind must be alert, and balanced."_

Troy was determined not to underestimate his opponent. Looks were not something to judge someone by. He also remembered Gendun said the opposite is true as well. While you should never underestimate a foe, you shouldn't be intimidated by them either. _"A warrior must be a rock, truly immune to any sort of external circumstances; one who is so easily swayed of the mind, is also weak in battle." _

Troy knew Gendun was very wise. Everything has its weakness, and nothing is undefeatable. In order to win, Troy was going to have to be very mentally tough.

He got out of the shower and changed back into his clothes. Link was waiting for him at the door; he was also ready to go, with his sword and his shield on his back. He had some other weapons: bombs, a boomerang, some knives, and a bow, with its matching arrows. The friendly and bubbly blonde guy Troy met yesterday looked like a trained killer now.

_Things aren't ever what they appear to be._

"Come on," Link said. "I'll show you to the shuttle that will take us to the arena."


	4. Chapter 4 Prison Tales

Characters are owned by Nintendo.

Chapter 4: Prison Tales

* * *

When Link and Troy had left for the shuttle, it wasn't quite time for Troy's match, so Link showed Troy around the first floor a bit. The first floor had a number of cool things: an indoor field for target practice, a special training room for simulating all of the items that were used in Exhibition matches, the kitchen, which was chalk full of Goombas and Mushroom Kingdom dudes; and the women's housing was also on the first floor.

On the way to see what the women's wing looked like, Troy and Link came across the two princesses, Peach and Zelda. Peach, a blonde haired and ditzy looking girl; Link told Troy that she's with Mario, and Troy thought that she was rather shallow. Zelda had brown hair, and a serious looking expression. She was proper and had fine etiquette, and her mannerisms emulated Link's.

_She's definitely royalty, and very pretty, but not for me_, Troy thought. He didn't really have a thing for girls who are up-tight and all serious all of the time; Troy was a rather laid back fellow. Besides, Troy had always preferred the look of lighter hair anyways.

Link however, _clearly _had a thing for Zelda, and the same went for how Zelda acted towards Link. Link had said that he and Zelda were friends, but the blonde warrior was probably wishing for more than that.

After saying hello to the royal women, Troy had to practically drag Link to the terminal, to get him away from Zelda.

"Why don't you just ask her out or something?" Troy said to Link. "I'm sure she feels the same way you do."

"You mean Zelda? I don't know, she's such a good friend, I wouldn't want to ruin anything between us."

"Listen, just tell her how you feel, and if she doesn't feel the same way, just move on. She seems like a cool person, she won't make things awkward."

Link sighed. "Alright, I guess I'll give it a try then. What about you, Troy? Are you going to try and woo that secluded blonde? You seemed pretty interested yesterday."

Troy hesitated, not sure if he should tell Link about what happened last night. "We kind of had a run-in last night." Troy confessed.

"Oh? I didn't expect you to work your magic _that _fast."

Troy's eyes widened. "No! Not like that. I kind of just watched her train for a bit after lights out, kind of a creepy thing to do, but she was just so cool to watch. She looks like a very capable fighter. Anyway, this dude started coming down the hall, and I didn't want either of us to get in trouble."

Link nodded, understanding that Troy had been in a tough spot.

Troy continued, "I sort of just ran in there and told her someone was coming. Then she tackled me, and we hid behind the console. She played a trick on the guy to make him leave, without him realizing it. She's really clever. I definitely couldn't have done what she did." Troy added the last part a bit dreamily.

Link smirked, "So then what, you guys were alone in a training room, while everyone was sleeping, and nothing happened?"

"No, she just yelled at me for a second for bothering her, and then left." Troy replied.

Link just shrugged, "Women, man. What can you do?"

They reached the terminal bay with 5 minutes left to spare. Penalty for failing to reach the terminal for your match was harsh, and Troy didn't really feel like dealing with that. The terminal was similar to a small subway station. The ceiling was high, and the walls were flat grey panels that curved to make corners in the frame.

Two tracks went outside the facility, one that led into it, and one that led out. Troy peered out the window and saw something that made his body shiver. They were on a rocky, wasteland type planet, and it had probably had no oxygen on it.

_So there really is no way out of this place, _Troy thought despairingly.

There were airlocks that the train had to go through, and Troy guessed that the whole train was sealed, similar to an airplane cabin.

The train arrived shortly after they had sat down at one of the station's commuter benches, and the two friends walked on and sat down. The train had lots of windows, which made it look exceptionally nice, and the benches inside were comfortable. On the wall of the train was a map of the S.S.B. facility. It had four floors: a basement, two living floors, and a management section, which was above where Link and Troy were staying. The basement was for mechanical type things for the building, and management is where they had the broadcasting headquarters for the arena's galactic television show.

Troy saw that there were large satellites about 2 miles away from the facility. The satellites must have been huge, to be able to reach all over the galaxy.

The train breached the airlock and Troy heard a large _whoosh_ noise of air being sucked out into the vacuum of space. He looked out the windows as the train exited the facility, making its way out onto the rocky landscape. The landscape looked at lot like the pictures of the moon Troy had seen before: barren, flat, and uninteresting, with a few craters scattered about. The color of the landscape was darker than that of the moons, though. It was a sort of purplish hue.

From the outside, the facility looked rather dull: a gigantic rectangle shaped complex, with barely any windows, and it looked like a futuristic prison building. It's essentially what it was as well, designed to keep all of the fighters on the inside. Even if they were to escape, there was really nowhere to go without a spaceship.

Troy had been standing, looking out the window, when he felt Link's gaze on him. He turned around and faced Link.

"What's up?" Troy asked.

Link answered, "Is that why you slept in?"

Troy wasn't sure what Link was asking, and then he remembered they had been talking about Troy's adventure last night.

"You mean last night? Well, not really. Before that, I took a walk because I was having trouble sleeping. You see, I have these…" Troy hesitated, just then realizing where the conversation was going.

_Do I really want to share that with Link? Would he even understand? No one ever really does, they don't know what it's like._

"Have these what?" Link prodded.

"Nothing, forget it. I just couldn't sleep, I guess."

Link gave Troy a weird look, but he didn't pry further. A moment of silence passed among the two young men. Between the S.S.B facility and the S.S.B arena, was a large hill. The train was moving very quickly, and passed over the top of the hill. Link looked out the window as the cart passed over the small mountain, and saw a familiar structure.

"Hey look, there's the arena. Isn't it really cool?" Link said.

Troy looked out the front window of the unmanned, automated train. The arena was massive, absolutely monstrous. It was a giant cylinder, about the height of a skyscraper. It was also huge in diameter. If Troy had to guess, it had to be at least a mile wide. The arena was most definitely _the _biggest building he'd ever seen.

There were arches in its frame, and the architecture was a mixture of futuristic shiny lights and metal, and ancient roman coliseum type construction. There were spaceships of all different colors and sizes flying around the area surrounding the arena.

"Yeah… it's massive." Troy said, completely awestruck at the sight of the monstrosity.

The train sped up a bit as they got closer to the mega-dome. They were passing by spaceships, and Troy could make out a subway dock up ahead. The train bay had air-locks installed in it as well, and Troy wondered how the whole complex was air-tight.

They reached the air-lock doors, and Link stood up, ready to exit.

Once inside the station, Troy and Link both went across the flat ground, to a large, round booth, with a couple attendants sitting at it. The booth was labeled "Competitors." Standing around the booth, were several fighters, signing in for fights or to sit in the 'Champions Box'; a seating area inside the arena especially for the competitors.

Troy recognized a few of them, a blue man with a giant hammer, a monkey, and his gorilla buddy, as well as an armored young man with a sword. Also signing in was Fox and Falco, they were chatting idly, waiting for an open attendant, when they spotted Link and Troy. They smiled and walked over.

Fox said, "What's up guys?"

"I'm signing in to watch Troy fight his first match." Link replied enthusiastically.

"Oh placement matches eh?" Falco said to Troy. "Don't get nervous man; they're just like any other match."

Fox smirked and said, "Yeah don't sweat it, Troy. Millions of are people watching, you only have three chances at a good status, and your opponents are some of the best in the galaxy. No pressure."

Troy's face fell, he'd been trying to suppress his nerves with some breathing, but now he was really tense.

_Millions of people… _

"Fox, that's not helping!" Falco said, frowning at Fox. "Besides, I remember your first placement match." Falco smiled widely at Fox, remembering something funny.

Fox's face filled with horror, "Oh come on do you have to?"

"Oh, fine… I suppose I won't tell Troy about how you got destroyed by 'Pikachu', and we'll forget I said anything." Falco said, grinning like an idiot.

"God damn it." Fox said, looking completely humiliated.

Troy grinned at Fox, entertained by the two of them bantering. An attendant looked up at the group of them, after finishing with another person.

"Are any of you combatants in an upcoming match?" The attendant asked them all.

Troy walked over, leaving behind his buddies, "I am. My match is one of the first of the day I think."

"Ah yes, Troy of Earth. I've heard a bit about you, the women are all talking about the handsome new competitor." The woman looked over his torso, smiling seductively.

Troy raised his eyebrow at her. _Is she flirting with me? Wow, this is weird._

"Uhm, okay. I just need to know where to go. I'm kind of in a hurry."

The woman was still smiling at him, "Of course. You've had your physical examination, and your corporate evaluation, you're all set. Just go right through those doors on the far side of the room. You'll find everything you need at the end of the hall."

Troy thanked her, turned around, and walked back over to his friends. They were still idly talking about something, and then they turned their attention to Troy.

Fox spoke up, "You all set dude?" He asked Troy.

"Yeah, I'm ready to go." He replied.

Link looked at him and said, "We're going to go get our seats to watch. Good luck out their Troy, we'll root for you."

"Yeah, beat those C class pip-squeaks!" Falco said excitedly.

Troy smiled at them, grateful for the support. He was still a little nervous, but he did his best to keep it hidden from his companions.

Fox said to Troy, "Hey, we'll meet you back here afterwards for lunch. I know just the place to go to."

Falco groaned and looked at Fox, "Bro, don't even start. You're always taking us to Chozo Chicken, or Mushroom Kingdom Munchies, or one of those other greasy places."

"Come on, you know you at least liked that Bowser Burger."

The two of them continued talking about food, completely engrossed in their conversation. They had a _serious _bromance going on. Troy just waved goodbye to Link, and walked over to the double doors that the flirty lady had pointed out.

Troy approached the metal plated security doors. A high-tech looking security camera jutted out from above the door, and was directed at Troy.

Suddenly, a green light flashed on the top of the door's frame. The double doors parted, and Troy was let inside. In front of him was a long, wide hallway, about ten feet across, and another twenty feet high. The hall was unsurprisingly dull, grey and metal, like everything in the facility. At the end of the passageway there was another doorway; it was a replica of the door Troy had just came through.

_I guess I go through there, maybe? _Troy thought to himself.

Troy made his way across the long hallway. The hallway was completely empty, and the young man's footsteps echoed across the walls. Troy reached the opposing door after about thirty seconds of walking.

_Everything in this place is so damn big. I bet even the food is huge._

Thinking of food, Troy's stomach growled, and he desperately wanted his fight to be over, so he could eat to his heart's content. Again, Troy reached the large door, and stood in front of it. This time he was expecting the green light, and with a groan, the door opened.

Troy stepped inside. The room was square, and in a word, white. The walls were shiny and reflective, as was the floor beneath. The room was rounded, and had no edges or vertices; lights were embedded into the ceiling, and they casted a familiar glow around the box shaped room.

_It's like the holding cell I was in when I got my medical examination, _Troy recalled. _So… what do I do now?_

A small _beep _noise was heard from somewhere in the room, and two greenish ovals appeared in the center of the floor. They appeared to look like two feet, footprints. Troy stood looking at them for a second, before understanding.

He stepped forward, and walked over to the center of the room. The large doors shut behind Troy as he walked into the pale-white box. He arrived at the two green lights embedded in the floor, and matched his left and right feet up with them. Another small _beep _noise emanated from the room somewhere, and the two lights disappeared from the floor. Troy remained where he was standing, and looked around the room.

A portion of the ceiling directly above him opened up, revealing a small black square in the otherwise white room. A noise came from the ceiling, a whirring mechanical noise, and a twisting of gears. Troy tensed, not sure what was going on.

Just then, faster than thought, a glass tube was slammed into the ground around Troy. The tube was transparent, and was only a little bit wider in diameter than the area where Troy was standing. A little bit over, and the tube would have smashed Troy.

Without thinking, Troy spoke out loud, "What the hell?"

A small yellow dot appeared on the glass in front of Troy. The glass wasn't just glass after all; the whole thing was a display. The dot split apart, and turned into a small ring that encircled a portion of the glass display. The ring then slid down the glass, all the way to the floor, then back up again.

Two small _beeps _came from the ceiling above Troy, and he looked up. _What in the world is happening? _He thought.

Coming from the same place the small beeping noises came from, a grainy, computerized voice came over a speaker.

"_Troy of Earth; Height: 6 feet, 1 inch, Weight: 185 pounds. Your opponent is the chimpanzee of D.K. Country, Diddy Kong."_

Troy's eyebrows shot up. _A monkey… you've got to be kidding me. I'm going to fight, in space, on galactic television, in front of millions of life-forms from all over the Milky Way, and my opponent has to be a fucking monkey._

The temperature in the glass cylinder rose drastically.

The voice came over the speaker again, "_Good luck."_

A blindingly white light filled the room, and Troy rose from the floor. He floated for half a second, before the room flashed into brilliant light.

Troy was momentarily disorientated, and his eyes were shut closed from the overhead lights. When he opened them, what he saw took his breath away. Spanning in front of him was the biggest, most gigantic, mega-arena that he'd ever seen; and he was right in the middle of it.

Troy had watched the Olympic Games before, and he'd seen how big the stadiums get. To put what he was seeing into perspective, imagine an arena ten times the diameter of an Olympic sized stadium, and about five times the height. That's the size of the stadium that stood in front of Troy. The arena also had a ceiling, a large metal dome that spanned the diameter of it. The ceiling was necessary for keeping the arena air-tight.

Troy guessed there must have been a couple million occupants in the arena seats. He would later learn that the approximate number of people watching his first match in person would be closer to five and a half million.

There were rows upon rows of seats, all of which spanned across multi-level seating decks, and platforms. At the top of the dome were jumbo-sized monitors, which displayed what was happening on the battlefield. The screens were black, as the match had not started yet.

Towards the bottom of the mega-dome, was the competitor's box, where Troy's friends and other fighters were preparing to watch the first match of the day. Also among them, unbeknownst to Troy, was a certain blonde young woman, who sat alone in her own box. She looked onto the arena floor with curious eyes, ready to observe Troy's fighting.

Coming back to terms with reality, Troy looked down at what he was standing on: a large, metal, cylindrical platform. The metal was dark grey, and was akin to the metal back at the facility. Troy was sure it was pretty sturdy, and extremely thick.

Troy looked up at the rest of the platform. The platform must have been around 200 feet in diameter, so it was pretty large. It was empty, save a small figure that stood on the other end. Troy could barely make out the features of a small chimpanzee, who was wearing a red hat, and a red shirt. In the small primate's hands were two wooden guns.

After Troy gave a good look at the chimpanzee named "Diddy Kong", he wondered what he was supposed to do next.

_Well I suppose we start fighting, right? _Troy thought. He then tried to take a step forwards, but something held him upright. A strange force kept him rooted in place, unable to move his legs, or his arms. Troy was beginning to get annoyed with all of this weird, otherworldly technology that was around him.

_Wonder how the scientists back home would explain this. _

All of the sudden, a big and booming voice came onto a loud speaker from the top of the arena.

"_Fighters,"_

The crowds deafening roars died down, the arena grew eerily quiet. The voice was similar to some W.W.E wrestle-mania announcer that Troy had remembered from back home.

The big-voice-in-the-sky continued, "_Diddy Kong of D.K. Country, and Troy of Earth."_

The crowd picked up again, already knowing what's about to occur.

"_3…"_

The crowd grew louder.

"_2…"_

Troy looked over at the small chimp, thinking about how he was going to proceed. He didn't want to hurt the poor monkey, but he knew that the damage would be temporary. He had no choice but to fight the opposing combatant.

"_1…Fight!"_

Troy's arms dropped, and his legs buckled underneath him. He'd not been expecting the invisible shackles to release so weirdly, and struggled to return to his balance.

Across the arena floor, the small chimp moved at an alarming pace towards Troy. Diddy Kong held his guns at shoulder level, and fired at Troy. Troy ducked, and small whizzing noises came from the projectiles goingby Troy's ears.

One of Diddy Kong's bullets hit home, and smacked Troy solidly in the shoulder. Troy felt a sting where it had hit, and saw the projectile on the arena floor, by his foot.

When Troy saw what hit him, he groaned inwardly.

_A peanut…? Seriously, you've got to be kidding, a chimp with a peanut gun._

Troy saw that Diddy was about halfway across the arena from him, and Troy's combat training began to kick in. He reacted quickly, realizing what he had to do: he had to get in close to the chimp, and beat him down. He couldn't let Diddy take pop-shots at him, and wear him down.

Troy began to run at Diddy Kong, picking up pace until he was full on sprinting. Diddy saw what Troy was doing, and leaped, high into the air. Troy looked up and saw the monkey soar above him, with his little wooden guns aimed right at Troy. As Diddy passed over the young man, he fired peanuts at him. One struck Troy directly in the forehead, with more force than he had been expecting.

Troy stopped running and turned to face Diddy; he rubbed his forehead tenderly. Troy thought for a moment.

_Okay, I need to get close to this guy. I can't do any damage if he keeps away from me._

Troy started running towards Diddy again, ready to grab onto the chimp and start wailing on him. Little D.K. had other plans though, and as Troy approached, Diddy jumped into the air again, and blazed Troy with more bullets. Diddy landed 50 feet behind Troy, who was beginning to breathe heavily from running at the tricky chimp.

Troy turned to face Diddy, he was beginning to get frustrated at the primate's antics, and he certainly wasn't about to let a chimp with a peanut gun beat him.

_Think Troy, what do you do to get close to your more agile opponent? _Troy had an idea; he was going to bait the little chimp.

He smirked, and began running dead on at Diddy again. This time around he slowed his pace ever so slightly, as to give the illusion of tiredness. Diddy waited this time, smiling confidently, with his annoying little monkey grin.

Troy got about 10 feet away from Diddy Kong, before the chimp jumped again, high into the air. Troy suddenly made a hard stop; he dug his heels into the metal, and flipped around the opposite direction. Troy began to run the other direction, parallel to Diddy. The chimp still flew through the air in the direction that he originally jumped towards, and Troy ran along with him.

Troy stopped right in front of where Diddy was going to land, and looked right into the chimp's eyes. Diddy's expression grew alarmed, he had nowhere to go; he was going to land right into Troy's arms.

Diddy crashed roughly into the waiting man, who then wrapped his long arms around Diddy's frame. Diddy squirmed excitedly, making loud and angry monkey noises.

"Shut your mouth, you dumb ape," Troy yelled at the insubordinate Diddy in his grasp.

Troy grabbed one of Diddy's pistols, and threw it across the arena. He then grabbed the other one out of Diddy's hand, and shoved it into the chimp's big mouth.

The crowd roared loudly at the two fighters, obviously enjoying Troy's exhibitionism. Up in the competitor's box, Fox, Falco, and Link all burst out laughing; partly in disbelief, and partly at the ridiculousness of the situation.

The blonde girl in the adjacent box smirked in contentment, as an exasperated groan came from the box that Troy's friends were in. Donkey Kong looked on at Diddy Kong's pain with disappointment in his face.

Back on the arena floor, Troy was a bit lost on what he was supposed to do now. _Do I kill the poor thing? How? I suppose I could just strangle him, will that end the match? _

Troy looked at the chimp he was restraining with pity; the poor thing was squirming around with a large wooden gun in his mouth. Troy wasn't really at all into the idea of watching the poor thing die from suffocation. He had an idea.

Troy walked nonchalantly over to the edge of the platform. He looked at Diddy again.

"See you later, little buddy," said Troy, to the chimp

He threw Diddy over the edge, and into the abyss. The brave monkey was defeated, and he howled loudly all the way down. A pillar of flames rose from where he landed, who knows how far down.

Troy rubbed his hands, as if to say, 'well, that's that'. The crowd roared incredibly loud, louder than a jet plane taking off. Five million voices shouting at Troy's victory, all of them going crazy. The voice came back onto the loudspeaker at the top of the arena:

"_Winner: Troy of Earth!"_

Troy turned around and faced upward, towards where the voice came from. _What do I do now? _He thought. Suddenly, particles of light rose from the ground around Troy. More and more light surrounded him, until a blinding flash enveloped him, and he disappeared from the arena floor.

Troy opened his eyes slowly, and rubbed them sorely. He was lying on the floor of the same room he had come into, right before he'd been teleported to the arena floor.

_So this must be what happens if you die in the arena, you feel the pain, and then you just end up in here. _Troy thought. _I guess that's what that little glass tube thingy was for too, kind of like a checkpoint or something._

Troy marveled at the teleportation technology, wondering about how it may have worked. He stood up slowly from where he was sitting, thankful that there was no glass tube around him anymore. Facing the entrance to the small room, Troy walked over to it, and the door opened quickly. As he walked down the long hallway, Troy thought about what he was supposed to do now.

_I have to do two more of those matches today, don't I? _Troy's stomach suddenly growled, and he remembered that he had to go and meet up with Link and the two party animals. _Ha, party animals, I crack myself up._

The door at the end of the long and hallway opened up as Troy walked close to it, and he was back in the terminal/sign-in room. 'Room' wasn't really the word to describe it though, the ceilings were very tall, and there were lots of windows peering out to the rocky landscape; it was more of a wide auditorium, with a train terminal in it.

Troy walked over to some seats in front of the sign-in desk, and took a seat. He figured he'd just wait for the guys to come and find him, as it would do him no good at all to try and find them. A couple minutes passed, and Troy noticed the flirty young woman at the sign-in desk steal a few glances at him.

Troy closed his eyes and leaned back into his chair. He felt pretty relaxed just resting there, and the chairs were so comfortable, and he could just fall-

"Hey guys, he's over here!"

Troy could hear Fox's voice a little ways off, interrupting his quiet resting. He opened his eyes to Fox, Falco, and Link all running over to him, their faces filled with smiles.

Falco stopped right in front of him, and said, "Nice work my man, you're in B class now!"

Fox said, "Yeah Troy, now you're on our level, feels good don't it?"

"Hey guys, give him some space," Link said, "Come on Troy, let's go get some food."

Troy absentmindedly followed his three companions through the mega-dome. He told them about how his match went over, including his strategy to finally catch Diddy Kong. He compared it to playing an American sport called "football", where he would run quickly to catch the ball where it was supposed to land.

None of them had ever played football though, so it was hard to explain.

They finally reached a place called 'Earth Eats', where there was food from Troy's home-planet. Troy had enthusiastically chosen to eat there, as it was the only place where he knew for sure what he would be eating; some of the other food he saw on the way looked kind of gross.

"So Troy, you have another match in about twenty minutes." Link told Troy, as he was biting into a large gyro-type sandwich. Troy looked at a clock on the wall of the Earth Eats restaurant, and the time was 11:39 S.S.B.

"Where are you finding this out, Link?" Troy responded.

"I was told to let you know, since you're my roommate. When you get your placement, the match times become more regular, and you get the week's schedule from a game-master back at the facility."

Troy nodded in understanding. The group continued eating in silence, all thinking about separate things. Troy thought maybe he should ask who's in B class, but he decided he'd wait to find out who he was fighting when the time came.

After a couple of minutes of eating, Troy thought of the question he really wanted answered.

"How long have you all been here?" Troy asked the other three.

No one said anything for a second; no one made eye contact with Troy.

It was Falco who finally spoke up, "Fox and I have been here two months, and Link came in a couple days after we did."

Fox spoke out in anger, "It's a fucking prison, Troy! They're keeping us locked up on this God damn-"

"It's alright, Fox," Falco soothed, he patted Fox on the back to calm him. Falco continued, with his attention directed towards Troy, "They run things harshly here, the game-masters. They won't let anyone leave, and we're not sure for how long either."

Falco took a sip of some soda and continued, "I know that where you're from, intergalactic travel isn't really too possible, so you're probably not familiar with the way things work out in space."

Troy nodded, letting Falco know to continue.

"Laws are hard to enforce all over the galaxy, so a few kidnappings go unnoticed; the Galactic Federation has bigger issues to deal with."

Troy sat back in his chair, taking in what was said.

"So then what you're saying is… we're fucked." Troy said.

Falco took on a hard expression, "A couple guys tried to escape one night about a month ago. They didn't make it far before being caught, and they got punished pretty badly. The guys won't say what the game-masters did to them, but I remember I saw a lot less of those guys that whole week."

Link just sighed heavily and put down his sandwich, "Your match starts in 10 minutes Troy. We'd better get down there."

Troy's head filled with glum thoughts on the way down to the sign-in lobby.

_I've got to find a way out of this place. _He thought. _Meanwhile, I'll have to play their little games. I need a plan._

Troy thought that plans would come later, though. At the moment, he had to get into the right frame of mind for his match. This opponent would be harder than his last one.

The guys wished Troy well as he signed in with the front-desk woman. They walked off to get some seats, and Troy missed their company already. Now that he finally had a few acquaintances, it was hard not to get a little bit attached to them.

Troy walked through the large door, then down the long hallway that he had walked only an hour before. The hallway seemed so much longer than it had before, Troy felt different.

'_A fucking prison'; Fox is right. It's all an illusion, the nice food, the cool training rooms, the competitive matches; they're trying to makes us have no desire to leave. Well fuck that, I'm going to bust out of here. _

Troy clenched his fists, he felt angry at the game-masters. How could they just uproot people's lives, just for some silly gladiatorial television? Troy realized why too, the 'silly' matches probably generated a huge sum of money. _Millions _of people watched them; each competitor was a gold mine for the S.S.B.

He walked through the second door at the end of the hall, and into the white teleport-checkpoint-launch room. He stood on the green footprints and the glass tube slide down over top of him. Then the yellow light turned once more into the yellow ring, and marked Troy's "progress".

The familiar computerized voice came over the small speaker in the ceiling.

"_Troy of Earth; Height: 6 feet, 1 inch, Weight: 185 pounds. Your opponent is the dragon-turtle, Bowser, of the Mushroom Kingdom."_

Troy's eyebrows rose, _Dragon turtle? _

The voice came back on, "_Good luck."_

White lights rose around Troy, and he was once again lifted into the air.

_This 'Bowser' better be ready._


	5. Chapter 5 Dreadful Daydreams

Characters are owned by Nintendo.

Chapter 5: Dreadful Daydreams

* * *

The first thing Troy could hear was the roar of the crowd; people were whistling, cheering, shouting, chanting, anything to make more noise. They were all there waiting to watch a fight between an unfortunate young man, and an angry looking turtle.

Troy was the first to reach the platform, and he watched as Bowser was teleported in on a ray of light. The monstrous turtle stood on its hind legs, easily clearing ten feet tall, and it looked like it weighed more than a truck.

_It's okay, just relax Troy. Don't worry about the monster that's about to tear your limbs off, just chill for a second. _

Bowser let loose a shiver-inducing roar, but was still bound by the invisible shackles. His eyes stared angrily at Troy, and he looked incredibly eager to fight the young man. Troy just looked around at all of the people in the stands, trying his best to not look frightened.

_How the hell do I fight this thing? It's huge!_

The familiar booming voice came over the arena loud speakers, "_Fighters: Bowser of the Mushroom Kingdom, and Troy of Earth._"

_I wonder how it feels to die. Maybe I'll get a glimpse of it in this match, _Troy thought glumly.

"3… 2… 1… Fight!"

The invisible shackles released, and the crowd went wild. Bowser took a step forward, rumbling the ground slightly. As Bowser advanced, Troy got into a defensive stance.

_I can't hope to fight him hand to hand, at least not for long. He'll take me down with only one strike. I need to dance around him, and take jabs at him._

Troy ran forward, and Bowser stopped advancing. The dragon turtle's head reared back, and his mouth opened wide. Fire spewed from Bowser's mouth, red and orange flames spread across the arena in front of Troy.

Troy frantically stopped himself, and rolled clumsily to his left. He felt the searing heat pass over top of him, and he stood up to face the beast.

_Well, there's the 'dragon' part, _Troy mused.

He picked up his pace again, running straight for Bowser. Bowser stood still and fired more flame-balls at Troy. The fighter dodged them with relative ease, a few hairs singed in the process, but mostly okay.

As Troy drew nearer, Bowser got lower to the ground, ready to swing at the human boy. Troy hit the ground and slid, right underneath the heavy turtle, in between his widely spread legs. Bowser swung at the ground as Troy passed, but missed by a wide margin.

Troy was now behind Bowser, and he delivered a few punches to the beast's tail and hindquarters. Bowser groaned and slowly tried turning around, but Troy was much faster. He ran around Bowser's body, keeping behind the back of the monster as it stumbled around.

Now that Troy had Bowser where he wanted him, he didn't really know what to do next. _What was it that Gendun said about larger opponents? _He thought.

Bowser stopped moving and bent his massive body over. Troy saw the giant turtle's head appear in between his legs. Bowsers face contorted into fury, and his mouth opened widely. Red hot flames burst forth from in between Bowsers legs, and Troy dove to his right to avoid them.

Troy felt the ground rumble as he struggled to get up. When he turned around, Bowser was standing over him with a big grin on his face.

The beast spoke, "Now I've got you, punk."

Bowser picked up Troy, wrapping his giant claws around Troy's midsection. Troy felt the air leave him as Bowser squeezed tighter and tighter, and Troy felt his ribs contort in a way that they shouldn't.

Bowser raised his arm high into the air, and Troy was held high above the ground.

_Shit shit shit! _Troy thought.

The ground rushed to meet the brown haired young man, and he slammed into the ground, hard. Troy saw stars, and drew close to blacking out from the pain. Out of the corner of his eye Troy saw Bowser lift his foot up, threatening to stomp him into the ground.

Just before Bowser's clawed feet pounded him into the arena floor, Troy rolled hard to his left underneath Bowser. Bowser made an angry growling noise, and lifted his foot up to find no squashed human beneath it.

Troy stood up, ignoring the pain, which he knew was temporary anyways. Just then, he had an idea.

_I've had enough of this bullshit, _he thought angrily.

Troy jumped and grabbed onto one of the spikes on Bowsers back. Bowser howled in surprise, and tried his best to reach around and grab Troy, as the boy from Earth climbed his back. The crowd went crazy as they watched the young man climb the giant turtle, all waiting to see who would win.

Troy reached Bowser's neck, and grabbed onto the orange tufts of hair on Bowser's head, using them as handholds. Bowser seemed to not like this much, and he thrashed his head back and forth, knocking Troy about. Troy did his best to hold on, bringing his legs up, and wrapping them tightly around Bowser's thick neck.

Now, Troy had had his qualms about strangling a cute little chimp named "Diddy Kong," but no such thoughts were given to the ugly beast he was fighting. Troy wrapped his legs even tighter around Bowser's neck, aiming to cut off air flow with his feet.

Bowser stopped shouting, and threw his arms up, trying to grab onto Troy. However, the unfortunate dragon's muscle-bound shoulders didn't have the range of motion to reach Troy.

Bowser's struggling grew weaker by the second, and Troy wrapped his legs even tighter around the fat wind pipe of the beast. Bowser's arms drooped, and he stopped trying to get Troy off of his back.

The tall monster's head sagged, and he fell forward, hitting the ground with a mighty _thud. _Troy breathed deeply, and removed his legs from underneath the fallen Bowser's neck.

Troy stood and faced the crowd. His ribs felt broken, he was sure he had a dislocated shoulder from slamming into the ground, and his arm was bleeding badly, probably from one of Bowser's spikes; but he had won.

"_Winner: Troy of Earth!" _The familiar voice of the announcer sung out.

Troy put his arms up and waved at the massive crowds in the stands, all of them chanting his name.

Troy stood up from the floor; he was lying inside of the progress room, just as he had been before. He turned around and went out the doors and into the long hall way again.

_I can't believe I won that, _Troy thought.

Troy made his way down the hall, and out of the giant double doors. Back inside of the lobby, he decided to walk over and take a seat.

_I'll just wait for the dudes right here, and we'll go back to the facility._

Now that he thought about it, Troy was getting pretty sleepy. He leaned his head back and on to the head rest of the comfortable lobby seats.

_I'm just going to rest my eyes for a bit, they'll be here soon._

Troy fell asleep almost immediately after he laid his head back, and he slouched in the reclined seat. A couple minutes after he fell asleep, a tall blonde girl in a white tank-top came into the lobby from the arena door. She recognized Troy and walked over toward his seat, taking her time as she strolled across the open floor.

The woman at the front desk saw what the blonde young woman was looking at.

"He's cute, isn't he?" The woman said, staring at Troy.

The blonde girl spoke, "I… uhh…"

The front desk woman grinned, "Don't worry honey, he's all yours."

The young woman in the white shirt just shrugged, and then walked onto the train that would take her back to the facility.

After a few moments, Troy's friends walked into the large lobby from the arena hallway door, laughing and being loud. Troy was still asleep on the chair, unaware of his surroundings.

Fox was the first to spot Troy on the bench, "Hey guys, he's over there!"

Fox, Falco, and Link all stomped across the lobby in an effort to be as loud and annoying as possible. Troy jolted his head up from the seat, and was immediately overcome by his friends as they half-tackled Troy.

"Dude you won your second match! Great work, Troy." Falco said excitedly.

Troy grinned widely at the three smiling faces.

_Well at least I managed to make some friends here, one of the only good things that came from this mess, _Troy thought.

After the match, Troy, Fox, Falco, Link, and a rather depressed looking dragon-turtle hopped onto the next train back to the facility. Fox and Falco were on another tangent at the front of the train, talking about which interstellar vehicle was the fastest, and some other space-ship stuff Troy couldn't understand. Link was sitting back in his seat with his eyes shut, concentrating on thinking or resting, most likely.

Troy looked to the back of the train and saw Bowser looking glumly at the ground. The big fella took up the better part of five train seats, and the back of the tram was even specifically designed to be large enough to accommodate champions of Bowser-size.

Although Bowser was indeed a big turtle-monster, Troy couldn't help feeling a little sorry for the guy. He got up from his seat and walked a bit to the back of the transit car. Bowser saw Troy approach and looked away, shame in his eyes.

"Do you desire to gloat over your victory, human?" Bowser said emphatically to Troy.

"No," Troy answered, "I was just wondering why you looked so sad. I mean, everybody must lose occasionally."

Bowser replied with a deep voice, "This is my fourth loss in a row. I'm now in danger of being demoted to C-rank. The humiliation that will follow will be unbearable, that big-nosed pest Mario and all of his friends will mock me… more than they already do as it is."

Troy thought uneasily, _Mario bullying this guy? He's got at least a thousand pounds on that moustache weirdo._

"Why do you let them push you around, Bowser? You're an intimidating looking guy, after all," Troy responded.

"Back in the Mushroom Kingdom, things were different. Mario and his family feared me and my minions, they sought to destroy me after all the trouble I caused them."

Troy was surprised at the turtle's well rounded vocabulary. Who would have thought that Bowser was so well-spoken? The train rumbled on across the rocky landscape. Falco was now admonishing Fox for something to do with space weaponry.

Bowser continued, "Now, in this place, I am alone. I cannot touch Mario, or the facility masters will lock me away. Mario and his friends berate me, and I have no one but myself to turn to."

Troy shared a look of understanding with Bowser. He knew all too well what verbal harassment was like.

"Well, if you like, you could maybe sit with us at meal times. At least that way those guys won't pick on you as much."

Bowsers expression softened, "I'd appreciate that, Troy, but would your friends mind me? I'm of course an enemy of Mario's, and being friendly with me might come off wrong to a lot of the other fighters."

Troy looked back at his friends. Link was now gazing at Troy and Bowser, and Fox and Falco looked like they'd stopped their conversation.

Troy called out to them, "Yo is it cool if Bowser sits with us for meals and stuff? He won't be any trouble."

Fox laughed and said, "I thought you were a heartless evil dragon, Bowser. What could possibly be wrong with him sitting with us?"

Falco looked at Troy uneasily and spoke, "While Fox is a bit crude he does have a point."

Troy retaliated, "He's still a person… uh… animal, same as you are."

Falco shrugged as if to say 'you have a point there.'

Link just said, "Whatever you think is good, Troy. I don't really mind."

"Okay then, Bowser, you can chill with us if you like." Troy said back to the big green dragon-turtle.

Bowser flashed them all a toothy grin and sat back in his chairs contentedly. The train arrived to the S.S.B. facility shortly afterward, sliding smoothly to a halt in the air-locked lobby. Upon arriving, Falco and Fox made their way back to their room.

"We'll meet you guys later for Troy's last match." Fox had told them.

"Make sure to stick around for my fight afterwards, too," Falco also said.

Troy told Bowser to come sit with them for dinner, and the dragon-turtle departed to somewhere else on the facility, after giving Troy a larger-than-life hug. The two teens remaining walked across the plated metal floor, down hallways and through the facility to their room.

Along the way Troy tried to strike up a conversation.

"So Link… what's your home like?" Troy said, interrupting Link's thoughts.

"Hmm… well my home world is none like this one. It has wide extending plains, large and open deserts, oceans, rivers, lakes, and there are villages scattered about. It's a very beautiful place." Link responded.

"It seems like you miss it."

"Do you miss yours?" Link questioned Troy.

"I wouldn't give my world too much credit," Troy grinned, "I mean the landscape is nice and all, but mostly I miss my mentor, Gendun. He's probably out of his mind right now, I left home all angry and upset, and didn't ever come back. That was the night the ship came and got me."

Troy's expression darkened, and he stopped walking.

Link turned to face him, "Troy… I'm sorry to hear that," He put his hand on Troy's shoulder, "If it means anything to you, I'm sure a mentor wise enough to teach 'The Great Troy' knows that you'll return."

Troy tried his best to give Link a smile, but he was still a little unhappy at his own realization.

_Gendun's probably worried sick… and it's my own fault for going out and getting caught. I had to be all unreasonable and run away, _Troy thought glumly. _No use worrying about that now I suppose, I just need to focus on what's ahead of me._

"Hey Link, when is my next match? Have they told you yet?" Troy asked.

"Oh that's right! A game master came and told me in the competitor's box that you have your last one after dinner, at seven o'clock. This match decides whether you're an A rank, or a B rank."

"Thanks for looking out for me Link, I owe you one." Troy responded.

The two fighters rounded a corner and were at their room, 216.

Link spoke first, "Hey I'm going to get some training done. I'll catch up with you later."

Troy waved goodbye to Link and entered the apartment-style room. His bed was messy and his plate was still there from breakfast. After cleaning up for a bit, Troy decided it was time for much needed shower.

_I wonder if there is somewhere to clean my clothes, they're rather dirty after two days of wearing them, _Troy thought to himself. After exiting the shower, Troy searched the bathroom for some kind of futuristic laundry device.

He ran his fingers over the smooth wall panels, until he noticed two handles imbedded in the wall in the far corner of the small bathroom. He opened them both, and before him were a washer and dryer, both simple, with only a few knobs for controls.

After starting the clothes up, Troy checked the clock on the wall opposite of the two beds.

_2:09 S.S.B._, The clock read.

Troy couldn't do much while waiting for his clothes to wash, so he decided to take a small nap. He lied down on the soft bed, and sleep found him quickly.

Troy found himself in the backyard of his old home, the one he had lived in with his parents when he was a toddler.

_Why am I here? _Troy thought to himself, though he knew the answer. _I must be dreaming again._

Troy sighed heavily, and tried to move his legs and arms. He was completely rooted from the waist down, unable to walk or step forward and it felt like his legs were filled with lead. Troy was on a hill, a few trees surrounded him, and the hill was grassy, with small plants scattered about. It was dark outside, well past twilight, and the blackness of night swarmed Troy's vision.

_I can't move, just like usual. _Troy then tried to force his eyes shut, hoping it would wake him up, but he was still dreaming. After a few attempts at that, the brown haired young man looked around him.

All around him, Japanese houses were dark, covered by the veil of darkness surrounding the landscape. Directly in front of Troy, was his old house. The lights were on, and Troy could hear the faint singing of his mother as she worked in the kitchen. On the floor was a child playing with some toy blocks.

_That's… me… _Troy thought incredulously. _The dreams are never in anyone's perspective but my own, why am I watching myself?_

Suddenly, he heard a rustling in the leaves behind him. Three bodies crawled past Troy's legs, and situated themselves right in front of where he was standing. Troy's eyes widened, the men were in vests and boots, and in theirs hands were machine guns and assault rifles.

_No… it can't be, _Troy thought to himself. _In their perspective, not mine._

One of the men grasped at a radio mounted on his shoulder and spoke into it.

"We're in position, how long until the target arrives?" He said, in a clear and monotone voice.

A muffled voice told the man something that Troy couldn't make out, and the men trained their sights on the house in front of them. Minutes past, and just as expected, Troy saw his father came in the front door.

_It will only be a moment before Gendun comes in, and then the shooting starts, _Troy noted to himself anxiously.

The same man as before spoke, "There's the guy, now when I give the mark, open up on the mother, and then wait a second before firing on the target."

He was calculated and apathetic, almost as if he were doing something monotonous and routine. Troy was disgusted by all of it, and he wanted to be anywhere but where he was right now.

Just then, Troy saw a car pull up to the front of the house. Its headlights dimmed, and a man ran up to the door, soaking wet. Troy's father went to the door, and there stood Gendun, soaking wet.

"What? Who the fuck is that? He's not supposed to be here!" One of the men said.

"Hold on I'm getting something on the radio," The other answered him. "He's the guy we squeezed earlier, here to warn the others. Ready your weapons."

The three of them aimed down their sights, and released the safeties on their rifles. A few seconds passed.

"Mark."

The guns blazed, and Troy covered his ears, nearly deafened by the proximity in which the rounds were being fired from. The firing stopped, and the glass window Troy was peering into was now shattered, and covered in bright red blood.

Troy saw his father gape at his dead mother on the ground. There were screams coming from the inner part of the house, shrill and high pitched screams. _My screams_, Troy realized.

"Again," The man lying on the ground said.

More gunfire, bullets ripped through the house and soared into Troy's father; the marine fell to the ground dead.

"All of them!" The man shouted at his two gunmen, they kept firing.

Gendun and the toddler-aged Troy disappeared from view as they ran through the house. Holes ripped open the wall of the building where bullets embedded themselves; sparks flew from the Japanese home, more and more gunfire split Troy's ears open.

He awoke gasping, sweat pouring down his face and body. The now-awake young man threw the covers off of his bed, and ran across the room and into the bathroom. He quickly turned the faucet on and splashed handful after handful of cold water on his face.

_It was never that bad, why was it that bad this time? The screams… Oh God the screams._

Troy looked at himself in the mirror, his eyes were red and bloodshot, and his face was pale. _Wait, how long was I asleep? _Troy ran over to the clock, still in just his underwear.

The clock read "_5:56 S.S.B."_

"Shit, I'm going to be late for dinner!" Troy exclaimed out loud. He ran back over into the bathroom, and opened the washing machine in the wall. It was empty.

"Wait, what?"

Troy opened the dryer next, also empty. Then he looked around at the bathroom, finding none of his clothes. He then went back into the room and on the cabinets opposite of the beds, was his clothing, neatly folded and stacked into an orderly pile; a small note card sat on top of it.

Troy walked over, and stared intently at the garments. Suddenly, a realization came over him: someone had come into his room while he was sleeping. Troy's eyebrows rose in confusion, and he picked up the notecard on top of his folded clothing.

On it was written in neat pen:

"_Lose your last placement match. Failure to cooperate will result in severe punishment."_

Troy's eyes widened in surprise, "Throw the match? Why would they want me to do that?" He thought about what "severe punishment" might mean. If not being timely enough resulted in solitary confinement, he could only imagine the punishment for directly disobeying the game-masters.

Troy pulled his clothes on quickly, and shoved the note card into his pocket. He walked out the door, and headed towards the cafeteria.

The atmosphere in the dining hall was happy and loud, there were Mushroom Kingdom citizens of all color hats delivering food everywhere, fighters of all different colors, shapes, and sizes were enjoying their meals.

Troy walked in the far door of the cafeteria, taking his time walking over to the table where his friends were at.

Fox was going on loudly about his match earlier, "Then I grabbed him by his leg and threw him thirty feet in the air!"

Link interrupted, "It looked more like ten or fifteen to me…"

"Will ya let me finish, blondey? Now, as I was-"

"Troy! Hey man what's up?" Falco said enthusiastically as Troy approached. Fox shot Falco a look.

"Nothing much, had a bit of a nap." Troy responded casually.

"Ha that's right, you were well and gone when I came in, Troy." Link said.

Troy gave the green-hooded warrior an uneasy look, "Did anyone come by our room when you were there?"

Link thought for a second, "No not that I know of… why do you ask?"

"Nothing, don't worry about it," Troy responded, "Have you guys seen Bowser?"

Fox pointed at a table across the room, Bowser sat alone at it, eating his food. "I think he was waiting for you, he seems to not like us too much…"

"Nah he's just a little nervous that's all. Calling him an 'evil monster' probably didn't help things either." Troy told Fox, giving him a meaningful look. Troy turned to where Bowser was sitting and caught the turtle's eye. He waved for Bowser to come over and join them at the table.

Bowser sat down heavily, rocking the table and all of the trays on it. He smiled at everyone and began eating his food again.

Falco was the first to break the silence, "So, uhh Bowser, I'm kind of curious. How do you breathe fire?"

Bowser turned his big head towards the beaked warrior, "Well, there is an organ in my stomach that produces and stores flammable gas, the gas is mostly comprised of methane and hydrogen."

"When I breathe fire, I mix the gas with my breath, and a gland in the back of the throat heats the gas to its ignition point. Then I sort of just blow in the direction I want to."

Fox chuckled, "Does it do the same thing on the other end?"

Bowser just groaned as the rest of the table snickered.

The conversation continued with Bowser talking about his home in the Mushroom King, his relationship with the big-nosed family, and his great castles. Troy's three friends seemed to accept Bowser relatively well.

Troy's mind was elsewhere though. He looked over to the table where the girl with the suit ate at the other day, but she wasn't at dinner for some reason.

_Oh well, I'll talk to her later then I suppose... _Troy thought to himself.

_I wonder who it is I'll be facing in my match; they'll be A-rank, no doubt. It'll be a tough match. _Then Troy remembered his note, it felt like it was burning in his pocket, foretelling of his coming defeat.

_I guess on the bright side, even if I lose on purpose, I'll at least be a B-ranked fighter._

"Troy?" Link broke the brown haired man's thoughts.

"Huh? Did you ask me something?" Troy said.

"Yes, I asked if you're ready for your match. Dinner's almost over, and we need to get going soon."

Troy faced the rest of the table, "Yeah I'm ready, and I'll be fine, thanks."

Falco looked at Troy with hesitation, "You sure you're good, dude? You look kind of out of it…"

Troy just shrugged, "I feel fine."

"Okay then." Falco said with doubt in his eyes.

The party of five left the cafeteria, and made their way to the stairwell that would take them to the first floor. They walked casually, enjoying some idle chatter, and arrived at the train hub right before the tram was to depart.

The train ride to the arena was rather quiet, though it wasn't an awkward sort of silence; it was a serene and contented silence. The train bumped against the uneven tracks, and rose above the hill, the arena came into view shortly after.

Troy noticed when they came closer to their destination, that the number of space-ships hovering around the arena was much greater than the last time they were there.

Link caught Troy's eye and said, "Hey do you think…" He trailed off.

"Yeah, I see it too. Do you think they're here for my match?" Troy responded.

Link shrugged, "Maybe, but I can tell you that there's not really ever this many, especially on a Monday."

The reason that Troy had received an order to throw his own match was becoming more apparent. _Maybe they have a lot of money riding on the outcome of this fight; a bet perhaps? _Troy thought to himself. _Whatever it is, I don't care. I'm not about to face 'severe punishment' just for some silly A-ranking._

Troy had one small problem though: how was he going to purposefully throw the match without it being completely obvious?

The train pulled into the air-lock cabin at the base of the arena, making its stop at the arenas sign-in lobby. The five arena fighters exited the tram, and headed over to the sign-in kiosk.

Troy signed in for his match while his four companions signed in for the box seats, each of them finishing in a few minutes, and were ready to head off.

Bowser turned to face the smaller fighter, "Best of luck to you Troy, hope you make A-ranking."

Troy put his hand behind his head, "Heh… yeah, thanks," He responded half-heartedly. He wasn't sure how the guys would take it if he told them about the note. Troy's friends went down the hallway that led to their seats, waving goodbye to Troy as they went.

Troy sighed and made his way over the large doors, and they opened after a familiar 'beep' and green light. He made his way down the long metal-plated hall, and shoved his hands in his pockets. Troy was feeling pretty down, and was in no frame of mind to fight; in fact, he might have felt a bit grateful for the note in his pocket.

Just then a thought came to Troy.

_What if someone planted that note to sabotage the match? Maybe it wasn't even the game-masters, just another fighter that wanted me to lose! _Troy thought angrily. After another second of thought, he dismissed the idea. _If I'm wrong though and the game-masters really did plant it, I'd be in a heap of trouble for winning._

No, it wasn't worth it, he decided. He was just here in this place to get by; Troy didn't want to get caught up in the S.S.B.'s silly game, only to be stuck in that horrible facility forever.

After reaching the end of the hall for the nth time that day, Troy crossed through the last set of doors, and into the white room.

He went through the motions, stepping on the green spots, letting the yellow ring scan him and take his weight and height, and then he waited.

The grainy computerized woman came over the voice intercom:

"_Troy of Earth; Height: 6 feet, 1 inch, Weight: 185 pounds. Your opponent is the young woman of the planet Zebes, and of the Galactic Federation, Samus Aran."_


	6. Chapter 6 Why Are We Here?

Characters are owned by Nintendo.

Chapter 6: Why Are We Here?

* * *

Overhead lights beat down on the arena floor; the cylindrical battle platform gleamed in the middle of a massive stadium. Crowds in the stands roared as two fighters were beamed forward from their white-rooms, and into the arena.

The last thought Troy had before being beamed over was of who 'Samus Aran' might be. His last guess, the last person he'd want to be fighting was standing there in front of him, her armor gleaming brightly.

"_Fighters: Troy of Earth, and Samus Aran of the planet Zebes," _The announcer blared over the roar of the crowd.

Troy just stared ahead of him at the suited fighter. _Well, at least this makes losing on purpose a whole lot easier. She'd kick my ass even if I was trying to win!_

Troy grinned, and had another thought, _Samus… what an unusual and pretty name, and Aran is pretty badass sounding too._ Troy and Samus remained rooted to the stage by the invisible shackles, awaiting the signal to start the fight.

"3… 2… 1… Fight!"

Samus moved quickly across the arena, advancing alarmingly fast towards Troy. As she approached, the suited fighter reared her arm back for a right hook, putting all of her body weight into a single punch.

Troy dodged the blow relatively easily, and he anticipated the next two that followed it. Samus was trying to jab at Troy with rapid punches, making quick strikes at his mid-section. One blow from the blunt end of Samus' blaster arm connected with Troy's ribs, and he doubled over in pain, coughing harshly.

Samus then brought her heavy plated knee-cap into Troy's exposed chest, and the force of the connection sent him sprawling towards the center of the arena. Troy was lying on his back, gasping for precious air, his winded lungs emptied by Samus' blows.

The fighter still standing walked quickly over to her opponent, as she did so she grasped her cannon, arming the blaster to shoot hot plasma bolts. Samus neared Troy and aimed her metal arm at his head, intending to finish the match with a well-placed shot.

The end of the barrel glowed, and a beam of light came from the cannon. Just before it fired though, Troy rolled hard to his right and then kicked, cutting Samus' legs out from underneath of her with his own.

She fell to the floor with a heavy 'clang', and Troy was immediately on his feet. He quickly lunged for a vulnerable spot in the suits armor, the visor. Samus realized this though, and twisted her head to the left, allowing for Troy's hand to connect with her armored temple.

Reacting fast, the young woman reached out and grabbed Troy's arm. Then she flung him backwards, using her foot to push off of his hard chest, sending him flying over her head. Troy slid across the floor, and right to the edge of the arena. He grunted in pain, grimacing from the pressure put on his injured mid-section.

As Troy stood up slowly, Samus walked over to where he was, and prepared to end the match. Troy just stood there, breathing heavily, and he wiped a drop of sweat from his forehead.

"Well come on then, go ahead and end it." Troy said impatiently to the suited fighter.

Samus stepped forward and picked Troy up by the collar of his shirt. Samus walked Troy over to the edge, and then released him, sending him tumbling down into the pit.

Troy felt the wind rush by his face, and the overhead lights grew fainter and fainter as he fell into the deep abyss. He then felt a wall of pain meeting his entire body as he crashed into the floor.

The young man awoke in the white progress room and his chest and back ached as he stood up from the glass floor. After brushing his pants and shirt off, Troy made his way out of the room and down the hall again. He shoved his hands into his pockets, and his head hung low in a morose fashion.

Although it was on purpose, Troy couldn't help but feel a little sour at the result of his match. _I could have won that if I was really trying, _He thought to himself. _ I suppose that doesn't matter now though. I need time to focus on what really matters, getting out of this place._

Troy was somewhat unsure about what to do now, as he walked into the wide front lobby. A train pulled into the docking station, and Troy made his way over to it. He knew that the others would all be watching Falco's match, it was scheduled to be right after Troy's. But for some reason, Troy just wanted some alone time, some time to think.

The train departed soon after Troy boarded it, there were some other fighters making their way back as well: a robot, a few colorful looking creatures, and two children in coats, both wielding hammers.

Troy had gotten over the zaniness of the facility, for the most part. He felt it was better not to question most of it; he'd only end up more confused anyways. The train rumbled on, and Troy sat alone in the corner, his head back and his eyes closed in relaxation.

After a short while, the tram reached its destination, and the passengers disembarked, off on their separate ways. Troy headed back to his room, rounding each corner and walking down each hallway with rhythmic steps.

Upon reaching his door, Troy stopped. He stood in front of the metallic engraved numbers, '216', but he didn't enter.

_I'm not tired, but I don't feel like doing anything. I feel so… empty right now, _Troy thought to himself. _Maybe I'll go workout for a little while, that might get me out of this crappy mood._

He turned towards the training rooms, and made his way down the hall. As he passed the metal panels and mounted cameras on the walls, he wondered how Falco's match was going. He resolved to ask Link when they got back from the arena.

Troy began walking past the windows that viewed the training rooms, some fighters were training in the first few rooms. He saw Diddy Kong and Donkey Kong in one room, two kids in striped shirts in the next, and there were some guys with swords in the following room. All of the fighters were mauling the green training holograms in different scenes of digital mutilation.

The young man from Earth passed them all, and found an empty training room a couple down from the nearest occupied one. He didn't want anyone interrupting his alone time, after all.

After entering the wide room and closing the door behind him, Troy descended the ramp and found the console on the opposite end of the floor. He walked over and looked at the screen, recognizing the power button immediately, he pressed it. The console whirred to life, and on the face were lots of buttons and sliders; a button for the number of dummies, sliders for the speed and strength, and a number of other colorful looking controls.

After playing around with it for a bit, Troy had the settings on one manikin of medium strength and speed, and he pressed the button to start the training. A green manikin materialized in the center of the room, and Troy walked over to it.

He assumed a Muay Thai stance, and waited for the dummy to make the first move. It didn't take long; the green sparring dummy lunged forward, and tried for a left hook in Troy's side. Troy sidestepped and put his arm out, blocking the attack while countering with his own.

His blow to the manikins chin sent it stumbling backwards. The two of them continued on, Troy was absent-mindedly blocking and retaliating while his mind drifted elsewhere. He thought about the events that led him to the facility, his argument with Gendun, the origin of his father's demise.

Just as Troy was dropping further into thought, the door to the training room opened. Troy looked over and standing in the doorway was his most recent opponent, Samus Aran.

Troy quickly grabbed the dummies arm and twisted the green man to the floor; he then walked back over to the console and pressed the power button.

Samus jumped from the doorway and landed with a powerful 'thud' behind Troy. He flinched and spun around to see a very upset looking blonde staring him down.

Troy just groaned, "You know, I thought you wanted to be left alone."

Samus didn't bother answering though. She grabbed Troy by his shirt collar and forcefully shoved his back to the wall.

Troy yelped in surprise, "Hey! What the hell are you-"

"Why were you holding back?" Samus cut him off.

"What? What are you talking about?" Troy squirmed in Samus's grip to no avail.

"In that fight, you let me win, you weren't trying nearly as hard as before. Why? Do you consider me weak? Is it because I'm a girl?"

"Huh? No! Why would you care anyway? You won, I just got winded I guess." Troy responded, skirting around the question.

"Yeah that's a load of crap," Samus replied, "I feel cheated out of a fight I was looking forward to. Now, tell me the real reason."

Troy looked at Samus' stormy expression and just sighed. He pulled out the note card he had in his pocket and handed it to the blonde girl in front of him.

Samus took it and began reading, releasing Troy while doing so.

Her eyes widened, "Oh damn… I mean, I didn't realize they were doing this sort of thing." Samus said in surprise, she looked back up at Troy.

"Who knows how long they've been rigging matches," Troy said, "The way I figure it, they had some money riding on you in some sort of bet, so they made sure I lost."

Samus looked back at the note again and Troy stood there, sort of awkwardly.

After a few seconds, Troy said, "So listen, sorry about last night, I didn't mean to bother you, I just saw that the guy was coming, and you didn't really know so I-"

"Why were you there anyway?" Samus interrupted.

Troy thought for a second, "I was having trouble sleeping, so I took a walk. I stumbled upon your training room and you looked pretty impressive, so I kind of watched you for a little bit." Troy added the last part with a twinge of blush showing on his face.

"Oh. Well… thanks, I guess. I owe you an apology as well." Samus said abashedly, "I didn't mean to blow up at you, I just had a lot on my mind, and it's been a rough week."

Troy grinned, "Yeah I know how you feel."

Samus held her hand out to Troy, "Well, if it's alright with you, I'd like to start over. I'm Samus."

"My name's Troy," He shook her hand, then had a thought, "So where are you from?"

Samus touched her finger to her chin in thought, "I used to live on a colony planet; it was mostly used for mining. I don't live on any one planet anymore, I mostly drift from place to place."

Troy's eyebrow rose, "You mean on your own?"

Samus just nodded sheepishly, "It's not all bad…"

_I guess that explains her people problems, _Troy thought rather shallowly to himself. He leaned back against the wall behind him, and put his hands in his pockets.

"Do you go to school?" Troy asked naively.

Samus chuckled heartily, "No, no I don't. I'm a bounty hunter. I do contracts here and there for the Galactic Federation, they pay pretty well, and I get to travel to lots of places."

Troy's mouth opened in amazement, "You're a bounty hunter? That's pretty badass!"

The blonde girl put her hand behind her head and grinned, her face turning a light shade of red.

"Yeah well it's not all that glamorous; it's mostly just business and orders." Samus replied, "Well what about you, where are you from originally?"

"Planet Earth," Troy responded. He was not used to addressing his place of origin by planet.

Samus's eyes widened, "Earth? You live on Earth?"

Troy just nodded, not sure why she'd be surprised.

"I've always heard about Earth, but I've never been there," Samus said, sort of wistfully.

Troy and Samus sat in silence for a moment. The atmosphere of the training room was cold and stifling, yet somehow very peaceful. There was a strange serenity in the quietness of the facilities place of exercise.

In the adjacent room sounds of training could be heard through the walls; loud crashes and grunts, sounds of fighting and struggle.

"Do you know why we're here, Troy?" Samus asked the young man, a little uneasily.

Troy was caught off guard by the question, "Because the S.S.B captured us? We're here because they want us to fight for them."

Samus nodded, "Yes that, but that's not the main reason. The S.S.B is an organization that specializes in getting rid of people. It seems to me that they've been tasked with getting rid of all of the people that were brought here, for one reason or another."

Troy's face fell, realizing what that meant for them. They were cattle, waiting to be slaughtered and then forgotten. The S.S.B was going to get all the use out of the fighters that they could, and then they'd be offed. They were all just the S.S.B's playthings.

The young man could see that what Samus was saying was true. The other fighters were all heavy hitters where they were from: super soldiers, warlords, royalty, noble warriors, evil maniacs, and of course notorious bounty hunters.

_But why me? _Troy thought. _I'm just a college kid who knows martial arts._

Samus leaned back against the edge of the console and crossed her arms in front of her.

Troy spoke in response, "So you're saying we're dead?"

Samus nodded once more, "If we stay here, we're dead. That's why you're going to help me get out of here."

Troy looked puzzled, "How are you planning on doing that?"

"Well the first part is easy," Samus explained, "My suit is linked with my ship, so if I ever need to I can call the ship remotely."

Troy nodded, understanding where her idea was heading.

She continued, "Well the problem is, it's got a relatively short range, less than 5 parsecs. So to extend it, I'm going to use those satellites a few kilometers north of the facility."

Troy shook his head, "I'm still not getting where I fit into this, and I can't go outside the facility without a suit."

"You'll be covering my entrance and exit, and I'll also need to you to create a distraction beforehand, this way there will be less chance of us getting noticed."

Troy nodded slowly, taking in Samus' plan. _She's not just smart, she's brilliant, _Troy thought.

"That's a pretty solid plan. You know Samus, you're very smart."

Samus looked very pleased hearing Troy say that, "Thanks, I try." She did her best to cover up the blush slowly spreading across her face.

"Well don't let it go to your head," Troy said with a playful smirk, continuing with a more serious tone, "What happens if we get your ship here anyways? You think they're just going to let us leave?"

Samus just waved her hand, "Don't worry about any of that. With both the suit and the ship, I outgun those guys easy."

She sounded pretty confident, so Troy didn't bother questioning her. He figured they would just cross that bridge when it came time for it. He stood up straight and stretched, yawning loudly.

"Well, I'd better get going then. I want to go find out how my friends are doing after their matches." Troy said casually. He walked over to the ramp, and started to make his way out.

Samus bit her lip nervously, and said, "Hey Troy."

He turned around, "Yeah?"

"Thanks for being so kind to me, there are a lot of rude people here. And uhh, I uh... I enjoyed talking to you."

Samus blushed furiously, obviously not used to saying such affectionate words, and especially not to a young man as strapping as Troy.

Troy just smiled though, "Hey it's no problem. We'll work more on that plan of yours this week, see you later."

The tall boy walked out the door and into the long hallway, leaving Samus to her thoughts. She felt a sensation similar to butterflies in her stomach, and she groaned.

"Oh stop it Aran, pull yourself together," She said to herself in exasperation.

Samus sighed heavily and made her way out of the door, and back into the cold and lonely facility.

After his run-in with the blonde bounty hunter, Troy retreated to his room determined to catch up on his meditation and deep breathing. He sat on his bed cross-legged and his back straight, his mind in deep focus. Opening one eye slowly, the young man checked the clock, which read 8:09 S.S.B.

_Damn, I wonder why they haven't gotten back yet, _he thought to himself. He'd considered going to the arena to see what kind of trouble they'd gotten into, but he instead opted for some more alone time.

After some time of meditation, Troy's head began to lower, and his body started to feel heavy. Tired was not the correct word to describe the teenager's state of being, more like exhausted. It was not long after that he was asleep on his back, not even bothering to pull the top blanket over top of himself.

A small eye in the corner of the room twitched. A camera no larger than a dime peered its way into the small living space, detecting Troy's unconsciousness. A small 'beep' was lost on sleeping ears as the door was opened from the outside.

Three large suited men crept slowly and carefully into the room. They filed in softly, their steps lighter than would be expected from people their size.

All at once, they sprung onto the poor sleeping Troy. He didn't have a chance; one man held down his legs, while the other clamped the young man's mouth shut and gagged him. Troy struggled valiantly, his muffled cries trying to escape his forcefully closed mouth.

The third man stepped in and bound Troy's hands and feet with thick rope. After being thoroughly secured by the men, a brown knit bag was shoved overtop Troy's head, and he was completely subdued.

The three men hoisted all 180 pounds of the Earth-born teenager, and carried him from his room. They quickly moved down the metal pathways, and past the mess hall.

Thoughts ran through the bound young man's mind, none of which were pleasant. He wondered who was taking him, though Troy already knew who. The more important question: why? What had Troy done to warrant a kidnapping?

After a few minutes passed by, the three suited lackeys climbed aboard a lift found a couple halls down from the cafeteria. The futuristic elevator took them to the upper floor, where Troy's fate would be decided.

Troy felt the canvas bag lift from his head, and he opened his eyes to a blindingly white light. His vision cleared as his eyes adjusted, and a number of men came into view. None of them looked happy.

The young Earth boy was strapped to a chair, similar to the one he'd been bound to when he first arrived at the facility. He had no range of motion, and his breaths were labored from the tights binds around his midsection.

Standing directly in front of him was a familiar man. He wore a Hawaiian shirt, and had on leather sandals. His stature was small and his movements were spastic. He looked like a New York businessman with a bad sense of fashion.

The short man spoke, "Hello Troy, my name is Rohan. I'm in charge of this institution, and I'm either you're worst enemy, or your greatest ally." He added the last part with a wicked smile.

Troy responded with indifference, "You don't look threatening, just an angry little man."

Rohan's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, "You've got quite the attitude there young man. You'd do well to shut that mouth of yours and let me speak."

Troy just glared harshly forwards, and clenched his teeth in frustration.

The older man continued, "Now, it has come to my attention that you did well in losing your match as we had hoped. That's good! We very much like cooperation from our fighters. However, the part where you showed that blonde piece-of-work our letter didn't make us very happy."

Rohan glowered, and his gaze intensified into an ugly stare, "You have two options, tell us what it is you're planning with the insolent bitch, or we make you tell us."

Troy's eyes widened in hatred, "Go fuck your-"

His words were cut short as a burly henchman punched him squarely in the jaw. The blow made Troy's head spin, and he could taste salty blood in his mouth.

The shorter man's face contorted into a sadistic grin, "Actually we're quite happy you feel that way," Rohan said, full of malice, "We get to have a little bit of fun tonight!"

The mousey looking man snapped his fingers and two more men came from the corner of the interrogation room. They reapplied the burlap sack that was previously on the helpless young man, and lowered the chair backwards until Troy's head was tilted towards the ground.

A large bucket of water was taken from the floor, and the large man standing behind Troy's seat prepared it.

The ill-dressed Rohan spoke once more, "Now Troy, this is your last chance. Tell us what we want to know, or we get to listen to you struggle for air while we do our best to drown you."

Troy's response came muffled beneath the bag, and it couldn't be understood by the other occupants of the room.

Rohan snapped his fingers again, and Troy's bag and chair were both adjusted to accommodate his voice.

Troy took this as a cue to repeat his words and said, "How much money did you make tonight?"

The businessman in front of the chair frowned, and his brow furrowed in confusion, "Why is that of importance to you?"

Troy hastily responded, "You need me, you made more money tonight than any other. I saw how many ships were outside the arena. Everyone is paying to see the good looking kid from Earth fight."

Troy wasn't sure where his confidence or his response was coming from. He was mostly drawing straws about the money part, but he took a chance on it.

The man's eyebrow twitched and he rubbed his rough facial hair thoughtfully.

After a second of considering Troy's words, he said, "You're right and wrong. There was quite a turn out for your latest match, but it wasn't because of you."

Troy's eyebrows rose in confusion, suddenly interested.

Rohan continued, "It appears the bounty hunter by the name of Samus Aran is quite popular around this part of the galaxy. She's probably made a number of friends and enemies during her time bounty hunting, many of which may or may not have bet a hefty sum of money on her victory."

Troy's eyes narrowed as realization spread across his mind. _So they are rigging matches for backhanded bets after all._

Rohan looked offended, and said, "Don't give me that look boy, I'm a businessman, and I do what I have to in order to ensure my success."

After a wave of his hand to the guards, the mousey looking man said, "A day in solitary, no food or water. You're treading dangerous ground here, Troy. Don't disappoint us again, or the consequence will be too steep for you to handle."


End file.
